Aircraft

An aircraft is any device with capacity to take off, to land and to sail by the low and average zones of the atmosphere, being able this being able to transport people, animal or things, being apt to sustain itself in the air. According to the OACI aircraft it is All machine that can be sustained in the atmosphere by reactions of the air which they are not the reactions of the same against the Earth surface.

This lift appears in the aircraft produced by two physical phenomena of very different nature:

• The aerostatic thrust: it is the thrust that acts on the aircraft according to the Principle of Archimedes, and gives rise to the aerostats or lighter-than-air aircrafts.
• An aerodynamic effect that originates lift forces in heavier-than-air aircrafts, aerodyne calls.

The aerostats were those that were developed first, since its principle of lift made reasonable much more at the scientific and technological level of the time, century XIX. They rise according to the principle of Archimedes and they are characterized to contain a fluid of smaller densidad than the air. In this group are the airships and air balloons.

The aerodyne ones, or heavier-than-air aircrafts, are those that have brought about the development of the air vehicles. The aerodyne one generates forces aerodynamic sustain that them, which obtains through aerofoils as the fixed wings or tiltable wings, being able to adopt a infinitud of intermediate configurations. They are divided in fixed-wing aircraft and rotorcrafts.

Types of aircrafts

According to its design

In one first division according to its design we have the light airplanes, the heavy aerostat, airplanes and the aerodyne one.

The examples of light airplanes include nonadjustable balloons, such as gas balloon and hot-air balloons, and the airships (calls dirigibles) for example the flexible dirigibles and rigid that have an internal frame. The most similar type of rigid airship was the Zeppelin. Several accidents, such as the fire of Hindenburg in Lakehurst, NJ, in 1937 lead to the disappearance of great rigid airships due to the security.

In the heavy airplanes two ways exist to produce elevation: aerodynamic elevation and elevation of engine. In the case of the aerodynamic elevation, the airplane is maintained in the air by the wings or the rotors. With the engine elevation, the airplane defeats to the gravity by means of the vertical thrust. The examples of airplanes of engine elevation can be rockets or the airplane of VTOL like for example the Harrier de Siddeley.

Between raised aerodynamic airplanes, the majority lowers in the category of fixed-wing airplane where the horizontal surfaces of lift produce the elevation downwards turning aside the air to create an equal ascending force, according to the third law of movement of Newton.

The precursor of this type of aircraft is the comet. The comets depend on the voltage between the chord that the anchor to ground and the stream force of wind. The realized aerodynamic study with comets finished in airplanes of evidence, wind tunnels and computers with programs that model the action of the wind on the aircrafts and that are available at present.

• Aerostat
  • Balloon
  • Airship
• Aerodyne
  • Fixed-wing aircraft
    • Airplane
    • Glider
  • Rotorcraft
    • Helicopter
    • Autogyro
    • Convertible
    • Gyrodyne
    • Combined
  • Air cushion vehicle
• Not manned air vehicle

It is also seen

• Aerodynamics

References

1. ↑ Civil Aviation Organization the International: “1. Definitions and general regulation regarding the granting of licenses. Point 1.1. - Definitions”, in Annex 1 to the Agreement on International Civil Aviation - Licenses to the personnel. Montreal: Civil Aviation Organization the International - Document Unit Salts, July of 2006 (tenth editing). ISBN 92-9194-756-3

External Links

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Outline engineering | Aircrafts | Aeronautics | Vehicles