Figure 5-15. Worm gear.
Figure 5-17. Ramp in use with a Mooney M20.
Inclined Plane
The inclined plane is a simple machine that facilitates the
raising or lowering of heavy objects by application of a small
force over a relatively long distance. Some familiar examples
of the inclined plane are mountain highways and a loading
ramp on the back of a moving truck. When weighing a small
airplane, like a Cessna 172, an inclined plane, or ramp, can
be used to get the airplane on the scales by pushing it, rather
than jacking it. A ramp can be seen in Figure 5-17, where a
Cessna 172 right main gear is sitting on an electronic scale.
The airplane was pushed up the ramps to get it on the scales.
With an inclined plane, the length of the incline is the effort
arm and the vertical height of the incline is the resistance
Sun gear
Ring gear Planetary gears
Figure 5-16. Planetary sun gear.
arm. If the length of the incline is five times greater than
the height, there will be a force advantage, or mechanical
advantage, of five. The Mooney M20 in Figure 5-17 weighed
1,600 lb on the day of the weighting. The ramp it is sitting on
is 6 inches tall, which is the resistance arm, and the length of
the ramp is 24 inches, which is the effort arm. To calculate
the force needed to push the airplane up the ramps, use the
same formula introduced earlier when levers were discussed,
as follows:
Effort (E) × Effort Arm (L) = Resistance (R) × Resistance Arm (l)
E × 24 in = 1,600 lb × 6 in
E = 1,600 l-b × 6 in ÷ 24 in
E = 400 lb
Bolts, screws, and wedges are also examples of devices
that operate on the principle of the inclined plane. A
bolt, for example, has a spiral thread that runs around
its circumference. As the thread winds around the bolt’s
circumference, it moves a vertical distance equal to the
space between the threads. The circumference of the bolt
is the effort arm and the distance between the threads is the
resistance arm. [Figure 5-18] Based on this analysis, a fine
threaded bolt, which has more threads per inch, has a greater
mechanical advantage than a coarse threaded bolt.
A chisel is a good example of a wedge. A chisel might be
8 inches long and only 1ś2 inch wide, with a sharp tip and
tapered sides. The 8-inch length is the effort arm and the 1ś2-
inch width is the resistance arm. This chisel would provide
a force advantage, or mechanical advantage, of 16.
Stress
Whenever a machine is in operation, be it a simple machine
like a lever or a screw, or a more complex machine like an
aircraft piston engine or a hydraulically operated landing
gear, the parts and pieces of that machine will experience
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 Force from rivet gun

Distance between threads

(Resistance arm)

Effort arm

Resistance arm

Circumference (Effort arm) Rivet head

Figure 5-18. A bolt and nut as an inclined plane.

something called stress. Whenever an external force is

applied to an object, like a weight pushing on the end of a
lever, a reaction will occur inside the object which is known
as stress. Stress is typically measured in pounds per square
foot or pounds per square inch (psi).
Rivet shank
External force acting on an object causes the stress to
manifest itself in one of five forms, or combination of those
five. The five forms are tension, compression, torsion,
bending, and shear.

Tension Bucking bar

Tension is a force that tries to pull an object apart. In the
block and tackle system discussed earlier in this chapter,
the upper block that housed the two fixed pulleys was
secured to an overhead beam. The movable lower block
and its two pulleys were hanging by ropes, and the weight
was hanging below the entire assembly. The weight being
lifted would cause the ropes and the blocks to be under
Figure 5-19. A rivet fastener and compression.
tension. The weight is literally trying to pull the rope apart,
and ultimately would cause the rope to break if the weight
was too great. Torsion
Torsion is the stress an object experiences when it is
Compression twisted, which is what happens when torque is applied to a
Compression is a force that tries to crush an object. An shaft. Torsion is made up of two other stresses: tension and
excellent example of compression is when a sheet metal compression. When a shaft is twisted, tension is experienced
airplane is assembled using the fastener known as a rivet. The at a diagonal to the shaft and compression acts 90 degrees to
rivet passes through a hole drilled in the pieces of aluminum, the tension. [Figure 5-20]
and then a rivet gun on one side and a bucking bar on the
other apply a force. This applied force tries to crush the rivet The turbine shaft on a turbofan engine, which connects to
and makes it expand to fill the hole and securely hold the the compressor in order to drive it, is under a torsion stress.
aluminum pieces together. [Figure 5-19] The turbine blades extract energy from the high velocity air
as a force in pounds. This force in pounds acts along the

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Tension stress
Rotation
Compression
Figure 5-20. Torsion on a rotating shaft, made up of tension and
compression.
length from the blades to the center of the shaft, and creates
the torque that causes rotation. [Figure 5-21]
Bending
An airplane in flight experiences a bending force on the wing
as aerodynamic lift tries to raise the wing. This force of lift
causes the skin on the top of the wing to compress and the
skin on the bottom of the wing to be under tension. When the
airplane is on the ground sitting on is landing gear, the force
of gravity tries to bend the wing downward, subjecting the
bottom of the wing to compression and the top of the wing
tension. [Figure 5-22] During the testing that occurs prior
to FAA certification, an airplane manufacturer intentionally
bends the wing up and down to make sure it can take the
stress without failing.
Shear
When a shear stress is applied to an object, the force trues
to cut or slice through, like a knife cutting through butter.
A clevis bolt, which is often used to secure a cable to a part
Torque applied to shaft
Shaft experiences torsion
Turbine blades applied force
Figure 5-21. Turbofan engine, torque creating torsion in the shaft.
Wing top is
under tension
Wing bottom is
under compression
Figure 5-22. Airplane on the ground, wing under tension and
compression.
of the airframe, has shear stress acting on it. As shown in
Figure 5-23, a fork fitting is secured to the end of the cable,
and the fork attaches to an eye on the airframe with the clevis
bolt. When the cable is put under tension, the fork tries to
slide off the eye by cutting through the clevis bolt. This bolt
would be designed to take very high shear loads.
Strain
If the stress acting on an object is great enough, it can cause
the object to change its shape or to become distorted. One
characteristic of matter is that it tends to be elastic, meaning
it can be forced out of shape when a force is applied and then
return to its original shape when the force is removed. When
an object becomes distorted by an applied force, the object
is said to be strained.
On turbine engine test cells, the thrust of the engine is
typically measured by what are called strain gages. When
the force, or thrust, of the engine is pulling out against the
strain gages, the amount of distortion is measured and then
translated into the appropriate thrust reading.
A deflecting beam style of torque wrench uses the strain on the
drive end of the wrench and the resulting distortion of the beam
to indicate the amount of torque on a bolt or nut. [Figure 5-24]
Motion
The study of the relationship between the motion of bodies
or objects and the forces acting on them is often called the
study of “force and motion.” In a more specific sense, the
Clevis Bolt
Force
Figure 5-23. Clevis bolt, red arrows show opposing forces trying
to shear the bolt.
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