Aircraft is defined as any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air other than the reactions of the air against the earth’s surface.
MAJOR CATEGORIES OF AIRCRAFT
I. Fixed-wing Aircraft
a. Major Components of a Fixed-wing Aircraft
i. Wings
ii. Fuselage
iii. Powerplant
iv. Empennage
v. Landing Gear
b. Primary Flight Controls of a Fixed-wing Aircraft
i. Aileron
ii. Rudder
iii. Elevator
C. Secondary Flight Controls
i. Flaps
ii. Tabs
iii. Spoilers
iv. Slots
v. Slats
II. Rotary Aircraft
III. Major Components of a Rotary Aircraft
i. Airframe
ii. Fuselage
iii. Landing Gear
iv. Transmission
v. Main rotor assembly
vi. Tail rotor assembly
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FIXED WING AIRCRAFT VS ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT
FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT
- Generates forward thrust.
- Wings produce lift as the result of
the aircraft’s speed and the shape
of the wing which is not always static.
- Can manned & unmanned.
- Ex. Manned Aircraft: airplane, seaplane
- Unmanned aircraft: kites, Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
AIRFRAMES STRUCTURE
MAJOR COMPONENTS
- Fuselage, Horizontal wings, Empennage, Landing gear, Powerplant
Flying wing aircrafts are designed without a tail nor definite fuselage.
Wings blended into the fuselage generates more lift and less drag and this type of aircrafts are called blended wing bodies.
A lifting body is the opposite of the flying wing that it incorporates a fuselage that produces lift and the flying wing is basically a huge wing with no fuselage.
ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT
- Generates vertical thrust.
- The blades of the rotor are like rotating wings which creates lift by diverting the air downwards.
- Ex. Helicopters, gyrodynes, autogyros and rotor kites.
- Autogyros have an engine-powered propeller to produce thrust and an unpowered rotor which is driven by autorotation.
- Gyrodyne rotors are generate vertical take-off and landing but they utilize propellers that are mounted on small wings to create forward flight and act as antitorque device against the rotary blades.
- Rotor kite – not powered by an engine and needed to be dropped from another aircraft. Once dropped, the rotor kite uses autorotation to keep aloft.
MAJOR COMPONENTS OF ROTARY AIRCRAFT
● Fuselage ● Landing gear ● Airframe ● Tail rotor system
● Main rotor system ● Transmission ● Powerplant
FUSELAGE
- Same withs the fixed-wing aircraft that carries the passenger, crew and baggage.
- The rotary aircraft performs vertical take-off and landing that it does not require a complex landing gear system.
AIRFRAME
- Can be made of either metal, wood, or composite materials, or some combination of the two.
TAIL ROTOR ASSEMBLY
- Composed of the stabilizers and anti-torque rotor that produces thrust to oppose torque of main rotor.
- The anti-torque is also responsible for the yaw (directional) movement of the rotary aircraft.
MAIN ROTOR ASSEMBLY
- The rotating part of the rotary aircraft that generates lift.
- The rotor is composed of mast, hub and rotor blades which are responsible to the collective (upward/downward) and cyclic (fore/aft and left/right) movement of the aircraft.
TRANSMISSION
- Main function: transfer power from the engine to the main rotor assembly, tail rotor assembly and other accessories during normal flight conditions.
POWERPLANT
- Ranges from piston type to gas turbine type of engines.
SKIDS
- Commonly designed landing gear for rotary aircraft, but others could be attached with wheels for the purpose of towing and transport in ground.
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Collective lever, cyclic stick and anti-torque pedals
- The flight control inputs of a rotary aircraft.
- They could be the primary and secondary flight control inputs of each other since they can combine by a mixing unit to perform such desired flight movements.
- The input from the collective lever is transferred to the main rotor where the blades are adjusted to a certain angle of attack then collectively produces lift.
- The main rotor assembly is tilted through the swashplate and can be controlled by the cyclic stick to move forward/backward and left/right.
- The torque of the main rotor is countered by the input from the anti-torque pedals to the tail rotor which also controls the yaw of the rotary aircraft.