How does camber affect a wing?

Camber is usually designed into an airfoil to maximize its lift coefficient. This minimizes the stalling speed of aircraft using the airfoil. An aircraft with cambered wings will have a lower stalling speed than an aircraft with a similar wing loading and symmetric airfoil wings.

Which wing generates the most lift camber?

In general, low to medium speed airplanes have airfoils with more thickness and camber. Greater camber gives greater lift at slower speeds.

What is camber in a wing?

The chord line cuts the airfoil into an upper surface and a lower surface. The maximum distance between the two lines is called the camber, which is a measure of the curvature of the airfoil (high camber means high curvature). The maximum distance between the upper and lower surfaces is called the thickness.

How can I increase my wing lift?

To produce more lift, the object must speed up and/or increase the angle of attack of the wing (by pushing the aircraft’s tail downwards). Speeding up means the wings force more air downwards so lift is increased.

Why does the nose pitch up when adding power?

As the thrust line is pulling the aircraft from below the CofG when thrust is added the aircraft pitches nose-up. When power is removed the drag outmatches the thrust and is therefore dragging the airframe backward and upwards from the tail.

What is the purpose of adjusting the fuel air mixture at altitude?

In order to maintain optimum engine performance, the fuel/air mixture must be monitored and adjusted while in flight. As you climb to higher altitudes, the fuel/air mixture must be leaned to decrease the fuel flow in order to keep the fuel/air mixture constant and compensate for the decreased air density.

What is reflex camber?

An airfoil in which the mean chord line curves upward toward the trailing edge. This is to provide a download well aft of the center of gravity, increasing with air speed, in a tailless aircraft.

How do you find the camber of a symmetric airfoil?

If we plot the points that lie halfway between the upper and lower surfaces, we obtain a curve called the mean camber line. For a symmetric airfoil the upper surface is a reflection of the lower surface and the mean camber line will fall on top of the chord line.

What is the difference between a wing root and wing tips?

The wing tips are farther off the ground than the wing root. Highly maneuverable fighter planes, on the other hand usually have the wing tips lower than the roots giving the aircraft a high roll rate. The Wright brothers designed their 1903 flyer with a slight anhedral to improve the aircraft roll performance.

What is the leading and trailing edge of a wing called?

The top view shows a simple rectangular wing geometry, like that used by the Wright brothers. The front of the wing (at the bottom) is called the leading edge ; the back of the wing (at the top) is called the trailing edge. The distance from the leading to trailing edges is called the chord.

How does wing span affect the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing?

In this case (except for minor tunnel- wall effects that can be corrected for), the wing behaves two dimensionally, that is, there is no spanwise variation of the airfoil section aerodynamic characteristics. A later discussion will show the influence that limiting the wing span has on the aerodynamic characteristics.