RELATIVE AIR FLOW

• Velocity of air
approaching the aircraft
• Equal and opposite to
the motion of aircraft
and is equal to the
aircraft airspeed
• Relative Velocity

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 AEROFOIL
• A cut through the wing
perpendicular to the
leading and trailing
edges
• Shows the cross-
section of the wing

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 AEROFOIL TYPES
• Symmetric
– Identical upper and lower
– Less lift and undesirable Stall
– Lower Cost and ease of construct
• Non-Symmetric
– Wide variety of upper and lower surface
– More lift
– Generate lift at zero AOA

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 FREE STREAM FLOW
• Air in a region where pressure, temperature
and relative velocity are unaffected by the
passage of the aircraft through it.

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 CHORD LINE
• The imaginary line that connects the leading
edge with the trailing edge is called the chord
line

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 CHORD
• Distance Between The Leading And Trailing
Edge Measured Along The Chord Line
• Length of the chord line
• Chord rectangular and Delta wing

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 CHORD
• ROOT CHORD (Cr)
– The root chord is the chord at the wing root
• TIP CHORD (Ct)
– Tip chord is measured at the wing tip
• AVERAGE CHORD (C)
– Average chord is the average of every
chord from the wing root to the wing tip

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CHORD

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 CAMBER LINE
• Line running from the leading edge of the
aerofoil to the trailing edge, running midway
between the upper and lower surfaces of the
aerofoil

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Camber Line

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 CAMBER
• Ratio of the maximum distance between the
camber line and the chord line to chord length

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 CAMBER
• Positive / Negative camber
• Low Speed more camber
• High speed less camber and thin wings

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 CAMBER
• Symmetrical Vs non Symmetrical
• Camber % = distance b/w camber line and
chord/ chord

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 Angle of Incidence
• Angle between the chord and the longitudinal
axis of an airplane
• Angle at which the wings are mounted
• Permanently fixed
• Rigger’s incidence

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 PITCH ANGLE
• Defines the orientation of the aircraft in roll,
pitch, and yaw with respect to a fixed
reference coordinate system
• Angle between the longitudinal axis of the
aircraft and the horizon.

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PITCH ANGLE

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 Angle of Attack ( α )
• The angle between the chord line and the
flight path or RAF. 

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Typical airfoil at an angle of attack

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 THICKNESS TO CHORD RATIO
• The Maximum Thickness Or Depth Of An
Aerofoil Section Expressed As Percentage Of
Chord Length (T/C)

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 ASPECT RATIO
• Ratio of longer dimension to shorter
dimension
• Ratio of the span to the chord

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Aspect Ratio = Span/Chord = b/c
As s = b x c
So b = s/c or c = s/b
So AR can be written as b2/s
Or c2/s
 ASPECT RATIO
• Hi aspect ratio • low aspect ratio

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 ASPECT RATIO
• High Aspect Ratio
– Wide skinny wings
– Less drag
– Stalls at lower AOA
– Produces more lift
• Low Aspect Ratio
– Short stubby wings
– High speed designs

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 WING AREA
• Area Of The Wing Projected On A Plane
Perpendicular To The Normal Axis
• Wing area is not the total surface area
• Almost half of the total surface area

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b Wing area
S=bxc
WING AREA

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 LOAD FACTOR
• Ratio of total load supported by airplane’s
wings to the total weight of the airplane
• N=lift / weight
• Describes how many Gs an aircraft is pulling

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 LOAD FACTOR
• 1G
• Positive
• Negative

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 TOTAL REACTION
• The resultant of all the aerodynamic forces
acting on the aerofoil
• pressure differential
• Resistance of air to the aerofoil
• Acts at center of pressure on the airfoil
• Normally inclined up and to the rear
• May be divided into two components called lift
and drag

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 Which force is balancing
gravitational force or weight
of the airplane?

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 LIFT
• It is the component of total reaction which is
perpendicular to the flight path or relative
airflow

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 HOW IS LIFT GENERATED?
• NO FLUID, NO LIFT
• NO MOTION, NO LIFT

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 LIFT

• A fluid (and air acts like a fluid) speeds up as

it moves through a constricted space

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 HOW LIFT IS PRODUCED

Relatively

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 Lift Equation

L =½ (ρ V2 S CL)

ρ= Density of air
S= Surface area of wing
V= Speed of air
CL= Coefficient of lift

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 DRAG
• The component of total reaction which is
tangential to the flight path i.e parallel to RAF

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 DRAG
• Force of resistance
• Thrust to overcome drag

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 TYPES OF DRAG

Total drag is mainly divided into two types

(a) Zero Lift Drag (or Profile Drag)

(b) Lift Dependent Drag (or Induced Drag)

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 CENTRE OF PRESSURE
• The center of pressure is the point where the
sum total of pressure acts, causing a force,
which is called total reaction

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TYPES OF FLOWS

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 TYPES OF FLOW
• Steady streamline flow
• Unsteady flow
• Two dimensional flow
• Three dimensional flow

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 STEADY STREAMLINE FLOW
• The flow, in which the flow parameters may
vary from point to point in the flow but at any
point are constant with respect to time

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 STEADY STREAMLINE FLOW
• Streamlines
• Types
– Classical linear flow
– Controlled separated flow

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 CLASSICAL LINEAR FLOW
• The flow found over a conventional aerofoil at
low angle of attack in which all the stream
lines more or less follow the contour of the
body and there is no separation of the flow
from the surface

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 Controlled Separated Flow
• The flow which separates from the surface,
generally at a sharp leading edge and does
not break down into a turbulent chaotic
condition but, instead, forms a strong vortex.
• Controllable

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Controlled Separated Flow

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 UNSTEADY FLOW
• Cannot be
represented by
stream line
• Random manner

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 UNSTEADY FLOW
• The flow, in which flow parameters not only
vary from point to point in the flow but at any
point are not constant with respect to time

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 TRANSITION POINT
• The point at which the flow changes from
steady to unsteady is called the transition
point

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TRANSITION POINT

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 VELOCITY INDICATION
• Spacing of the streamlines in subsonic

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 THREE DIMENSIONAL FLOW
• Whenever lift is produced, pressure
differential tries to equalize around the wing
tip. This induces a span wise drift of the air
flowing over the wing inwards on the upper
surface and outwards on the lower surface
producing a three dimensional flow

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THREE DIMENSIONAL FLOW

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 VORTICES
• Formation
• Rotation
• Tip spillage

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WING TIP VORTEX

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