Aeromodelling club

An Introductory lecture
 What do we deal with ?
• Balsa gliders
• Boomerang
• Water Rocket
• Rc Aeromodell
• So, get ready for lots of fun!!
 Terminology
1.Wing 2.Fuselage 3.Vertical Tail 4.
Horizantal tail
Basic Aircraft Terminology

Airfoil: Cross sectional shape of a wing

Leading Edge: Front edge of wing

Trailing Edge: Back edge of wing

Chord Line: Line connecting LE to TE

Camber: Center line between top and bottom of wing

High camber found on slow flying high lift aircraft

Wing Layout

Planform: Vertical projection of wing area

Elliptical: good for high speed
Straight: root stalls, but cheap to make
Tapered: good stall characteristics
Delta: used for supersonic flight

Sweep: Angle between the lateral axis and the wing (high
speed aircraft)

Taper: Chord decreases as you move to the wing tip

Incidence: Angle between the longitudinal axis and the wing
chord

Angle of Attack: Angle between the wing and the relative wind
Twist: Bending of wing about lateral axis (helps prevent
tip stall by changing angle of attack)
Anhedral: Downward bend in wing (helps with stability)
Dihedral: Upward bend in wing

Aspect ratio (AR)= Span^2/Wing Area

More efficient for slow aircraft
Typical Values:
Glider: 20-30
Trainer: 7-9
Loadstar: 18.5
How wings generate lift?
• A cross section of a typical airplane wing
will show the top surface to be more
curved than the bottom surface. This
shaped profile is called an 'airfoil' (or
'aerofoil').
How Lift is Generated: The Too Simple Version
1) As the fluid elements approach the wing, they split at the
leading edge and meets again at the trailing edge
2) As a result, the air must go faster over the top of wing since
this distance traveled is larger
3) Bernoulli’s equation implies that pressure will be lower on
the upper surface
4) This net pressure difference causes lift
 How Airplanes Fly?
• The basic principles of why and how
airplanes fly apply to all airplanes, from the
Wright Brothers' first machine to a modern
Stealth Bomber.
• Essentially there are 4 aerodynamic forces
that act on an airplane in flight; these are
lift, drag, thrust and gravity (or weight).
 Angle of attack
A crucial factor of lift generation is the Angle
of Attack - this is the angle at which the wing
sits in relation to the horizontal airflow over it.
As the angle of attack increases, so more lift is
generated - but only up to a point until the
smooth airflow over the wing is broken up and
so the generation of lift cannot be sustained.
When this happens, the sudden loss of lift will
result in the airplane entering into a stall,
where the weight of the airplane cannot be
supported any longer.
However, a direct reaction to lift is drag and this too increases with
airspeed. So airfoils need to be designed in a way that maximizes lift
but minimizes drag, in order to be efficient.
Aerodynamic Controls

• Elevators control pitch angle

• Ailerons control roll angle

• Rudder controls yaw angle

• Flaps increase lift and drag

• Leading edge slats increase lift

• Drag brakes increase drag

• Spoilers reduce lift and increase drag

Control Surfaces: Aileron, elevator,
Rudder, Flaps
Elevators control pitch angle
Ailerons control roll angle
Rudder controls yaw angle
Vertical and Horizontal Stablizer
• The stabilizer is a fixed wing section
whose job is to provide stability for the
aircraft, to keep it flying straight.
• Horizontal Stablizer: The horizontal
stabilizer prevents up-and-down, or
pitching, motion of the aircraft nose.
• Vertical Stablizer:The vertical stabilizer
prevents side-to-side, or yawing, motion of
the aircraft nose.
 Dihedral Angle
The angle that the wing makes with the local
horizontal is called the dihedral angle. Dihedral
is added to the wings for roll stability; a wing
with some dihedral will naturally return to its
original position if it encounters a slight roll
displacement.
Supersonic bullet flying
 Gliders
• In its simplest form, a glider is an
unpowered aircraft, an airplane without a
motor.
• If you look at a glider next to a
conventional powered plane, you'll notice
a significant difference in the wings. While
the wings of both are similar in general
shape and function, those on gliders are
longer and narrower than those on
conventional aircraft.
 Aspect Ratio
The slenderness of a wing is expressed as the aspect
ratio, which is calculated by dividing the square of the
span of the wing by the area of the wing.
 Balsa Glider
• Equipments Required:
1.Balsa wood
2.Cutter
3.Scale
4.Sand Paper
5.Adhesive
6.Pencil
 Dimensioning
• Aspect Ratio =9-10
• Wing span = 50-60 cm.
• Angle of attack = 3-4 deg.
• Horizontal Stablizer = 20-25% of wing area
• Vertical Stablizer = 40% to 50% Horizontal
Stablizer area.
• Dihedral = 2-3 deg.
• Length of fuselage = 65%-75% of span.
 Weight Balance
Lift force acts at nearly ¼ from the leading edge
of the wing. Hence , we try to position centre of
mass of glider at this point .

Lift

Weight
 Design tips
• Add dihedral to the wing tips by making
the outer portions of the wing angle
upwards.
• Round the leading edges of all surfaces
and “point” the trailing edges.
and many more…
search yourself!!!
 Some Interesting facts
 Air Conditioning OR Roll down windows (while travelling
on highway speeds)

 Luggage on the top your Car or

parcel it through train.( streamline cargo carrier)


• Formula one car
• F1 car running upside
down…..
• Bees fly violating the law of aerodynamics.
•
Fluid/Aero-dynamics of Nature
Vortex rings in Nature
 Bats
 Birds
 Insects

 Fish & aquatic animals

 Flying Seeds
 Trees
 Crops

Atmosphere
Wind Flow pattern
Ocean flow pattern
Tornadoes

 Blood flow
 Respiratory flow
"Once upon a time some scientists and engineers or
college professors (different versions have different
names and specialties) were at a dinner party. The
subject of bee flight came up and the aerodynamic
engineer that just happened to be present decided to do a
quick calculation on bee aerodynamics. He used a
conventional stiff airfoil-shaped wing, with steady state,
or partially steady state, air flow analysis techniques, and
lo and behold, the calculations did not work for the bee.
Someone jokingly said, "I guess that proves bees can't
fly", and they all had a good laugh. But, of course, they all
knew it just proved that bee flight is too complicated to
analyze with conventional airplane aerodynamic
methods."
Here is the basis of the problem:
Conventional aerodynamic calculations are relatively simple, being based on large
fixed wings and steady state or quasi-steady state flow.

Insect wings are small, flat, rough surfaced, and flexible. During flight they
flex and twist in all kinds of horribly complicated ways. Also they are so small
that important dimensional fluid analysis numbers like the Reynold's Number
are very different, resulting in significantly different fluid characteristics when
compared to the bigger wings of birds and airplanes (even a sparrow wing is
huge compared to most insect wings). In addition, the small size and high
speed of most insect wings makes it very difficult to study insect flight
(imagine trying to attach a pressure sensor to an insect wing). Finally, the
pressures and flow characteristics of the air around the wings are very
unsteady, constantly changing as the wind flaps, bends, and twists, unlike
aircraft wings which are stiff with relatively simple constant flow patterns and
pressures.

Conventional aerodynamic analysis methods simply don't apply to insect wings.

Typical Applications
A Stealth Aircraft: Designed by nature

Vanessa atalanta
 A Case Study

The insect thorax is shielded by cuticles of thin-

walled chitinous shells, joined with an elastic
material, resilin. The wings and the thorax shell form
a distributed vibration system.
The sequence of insect flight: Cruising Mode (Sir J. Lighthill)
 Recent Attempts (UC, Berkeley)

Flapping Wings using a fourbar mechanism: piezo-

electric actuators driving a mechanical amplifying thorax
structure
In some insects the wing movements are produced by
wing muscles directly inserted into the base of the
wing.
In others, these are produced by muscles that pull on
the thorax shell, while the shell movement moves the
wings.
 For further info:
feel free to contact us at
1. Atul Nipane nipane@
2. Abhineet Gupta abhiji@
3. Mitul Kumar Sonker mitul@

or visit our site:

http://students.iitk.ac.in/aeromodelling/