Homework #1

1) How do the wings lift the airplane?

The wings on an airplane help lift by the popular airfoil design used on them. To lift an
object into the air, there must be a higher pressure pushing it up causing lower pressures to be
above the object. This is exactly what the airfoil shaped wings cause, they are designed to
create higher pressure with lower velocity on the bottom of them while causing lower
pressures and higher velocity to be up top. The reason is because the upper part of the wing
has a longer distance for the air to cover and the lower part is shorter.

2) Explain briefly the factors that affect Lift force of an aircraft?

There are three factors that affect lift and they are the object itself, motion, and air. The
object affects lift because it needs to be a certain shape and size to be create enough lift for
the total weight of the payload. Motion affects lift because if there is not enough velocity or
airspeed, there will not be any lift. The air affects lift because air is not always the same
depending on the temperature or altitude because that can change the viscosity of it.

3) Why are wingtip vortices formed? How do winglets reduce the vortices?

Wingtip vortices are formed by the differences of high and low pressures combining after
passing through the wings. This is because there are significant differences in pressures, so
they combine with each other in a vortex-like shape.

4) Explain briefly the factors that affect drag force of an aircraft?

The factors that affect drag are the same that affect lift which is the object itself, motion,
and air. The shape of the object causes drag if it is not designed to be aerodynamic like that
of the airfoil which means that there is always a drag coefficient. The motion and air cause
drag by induced drag forces and other things such as downwash.

5) What are the forces that act on aircraft during climb?

The forces that act on an aircraft during climb are the lift force and weight force. This is
because the lift force must be greater than the weight force just like the thrust needs to be
larger than the drag for it to climb up and forward.

6) What is the effect of Thrust to Weight ratio on the performance of aircraft?

The Thrust to Weight ratio effects the plane by determining the climb rate of the aircraft.
The relation is the higher the thrust to weight ratio, the higher the acceleration is which in
turn means a faster climb rate. If the thrust to weight ratio is higher than one, then the
aircraft can accelerate vertically.