Wing Twist and Dihedral

Why is the wing of a Cessna twisted slightly and why does it go upwards as it
gets further away from the body?
Before I try to answer this question, I need to define some terms used in aircraft design:
wing twist, and dihedral. From the wording of the question, I think he or she is asking
about dihedral, not twist, but I'll cover them both for the sake of any budding
aeronautical engineers.
First we will cover wing twist, of which there are two kinds, geometric twist and
aerodynamic twist. A technical definition of geometric twist would go something like this:
"an actual change in the airfoil angle of incidence, usually measured with respect to the
root airfoil." (Raymer, Aircraft Design) In other words, if you were to look at a wing from
the side, the airfoil (cross section) of the wing would rotate as you moved away from the
aircraft fuselage. In most aircraft, the airfoil twists down as we move along the wing
further from the fuselage. This is referred to as "washout."

Illustration of wing twist, or washout

Aerodynamic twist is defined as "the angle between the zero-lift angle of an airfoil and
the zero-lift angle of the root airfoil." In essence, this means that the airfoil of the wing
would actually change shape as it moved farther away from the fuselage. Typically the
zero-lift line is rotated downward toward the wing tips, similar to geometric twist.

Regardless of whether you are talking about geometric or aerodynamic twist, the
purpose is the same. Twist is applied to wings so that the outboard section of the wing
does not stall first. When an aircraft is pitching nose up and increasing its angle of
attack, the airflow over the wing eventually reaches a point where it becomes turbulent,
causing a loss in lift. By twisting the outboard portion of the wing down, the stall is
delayed in that area, simply because the angle of attack is lower in that region. Why is
the outboard portion of the wing so important? It is because that is where the ailerons
are located. By maintaining lift on the outboard portion of the wing, the pilot is still able
to maintain roll control of the aircraft in the event of a stall. A good example of wing twist
can be seen in the F-18 Hornet as illustrated here.
Now let's talk about dihedral. Much like twist, there is an actual geometric dihedral, and
an effective dihedral.
First we will talk about dihedral. Dihedral is the upward angle of the wing from the
vertical when seen from the front, or nose of the aircraft. If each wing is angled 5 up
from the horizontal, then the wing is said to have 5 of dihedral. A good example of
geometric dihedral can be seen on the P-3 Orion shown here. The opposite of dihedral
is called anhedral, and, of course, refers to a wing that is angled down. A good example
of an aircraft with geometric anhedral is the Sea Harrier exemplified here.

Illustration of wing dihedral

Effective dihedral is pretty much what it sounds like. Effective dihedral is the effect of
other aspects of the aircraft configuration that produce an effect similar to geometric
dihedral. Many aspects of an aircraft's configuration can effect its effective dihedral, but
two major components are wing sweep and the wing location with respect to the
fuselage (such as a low wing or high wing). As a rough estimation, 10 of sweepback on
a wing provides about 1 of effective dihedral, while a high wing configuration can
provide about 5 of effective dihedral over a low wing configuration.
All this talk of anhedral and dihedral leads to the question of why one would want use
either of these on an aircraft. The simple answer is they provide lateral (roll) stability.
Let's consider an aircraft rolling to the right. As it does so, the right wing produces more
lift than left wing, causing the rolling motion. At the same time, however, this increased
lift creates an increased drag, which causes the aircraft to yaw to the left, an effect

known as adverse yaw. This is why pilots need to apply rudder in the direction of the
turn.
Now let's consider the advantages of dihedral. When an aircraft with dihedral is yawing
to the left, the dihedral causes the left wing to experience a greater angle of attack,
which increases lift. This increased lift tends to cause the aircraft to then return to level
flight. I know this is very confusing in words, but if you stick your arms out in the air and
recreate all of these motions, it should make sense. Sometimes it helps to only consider
the yaw, and ignore the roll. The end result of all of this is that dihedral tends to make an
aircraft more stable. For some aircraft, like fighters, stability really isn't a good thing. A
slight instability in an aircraft lends to increased maneuverability, which is highly
desirable in fighter and attack aircraft. This is why most aerobatic planes and military
fighters utilize some amount of anhedral.
The observant aerophile will also notice that most large transports, such as the C-5
Galaxy and Antonov An-225, have noticeable anhedral, but are far from what anyone
would consider "maneuverable" (nor do they need to be). Indeed, these aircraft are
laterally stable. In fact, the anhedral is required to keep the aircraft from becoming too
stable! Recall the earlier discussion on how wing sweep and wing location can affect the
effective dihedral. Large transports have both a high wing and a considerable amount of
wing sweep, both of which create a large amount of effective dihedral. To counteract this
large amount of dihedral, some geometric anhedral is required. Otherwise the aircraft
would be overly stable, making turns extremely difficult, and an aircraft that can only fly
in one direction isn't much use to anyone.

Cessna 152 dihedral

So to sum up this discussion, the above photo illustrates a forward view of a Cessna
152 and clearly shows the type's small amount of wing dihedral, which we believe is
what the questioner refers to as the wing "twisting upward."
- answer by Doug Jackson, 2 December 2001