The main parts of the aircraft. Aircraft device

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The invention of the aircraft made it possible not only to realize the most ancient dream of mankind - to conquer the sky, but also to create the fastest mode of transport. Unlike balloons and airships, airplanes are little dependent on the vagaries of the weather and are able to travel long distances at high speed. The components of the aircraft consist of the following structural groups: wing, fuselage, empennage, take-off and landing devices, power plant, control systems, various equipment.

Operation principle

Aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft equipped with a power plant. With the help of this most important part of the aircraft, the thrust necessary for the flight is created - the acting (driving) force that the motor (propeller or jet engine) develops on the ground or in flight. If the screw is located in front of the engine, it is called pulling, and if it is behind, it is called pushing. Thus, the engine creates the translational motion of the aircraft relative to the environment (air). Accordingly, the wing also moves relative to the air, which creates lift as a result of this forward movement. Therefore, the device can stay in the air only if there is a certain speed.flight.

What are the names of parts of the aircraft

The case consists of the following main parts:

• The fuselage is the main body of the aircraft, connecting the wings (wing), plumage, power system, landing gear and other components into a single whole. The fuselage accommodates the crew, passengers (in civil aviation), equipment, payload. Can also accommodate (not always) fuel, chassis, motors, etc.
• The engines are used to propel the aircraft.
• Wing - a working surface designed to create lift.
• Vertical tail is designed for handling, balancing and directional stability of the aircraft relative to the vertical axis.
• Horizontal tail is designed for handling, balancing and directional stability of the aircraft relative to the horizontal axis.

Wings and fuselage

The main part of the aircraft structure is the wing. It creates the conditions for fulfilling the main requirement for the possibility of flight - the presence of lift. The wing is attached to the body (fuselage), which can be of one form or another, but, if possible, with minimal aerodynamic drag. To do this, it is provided with a conveniently streamlined teardrop shape.

The front of the aircraft serves to accommodate the cockpit and radar systems. At the rear is the so-called tail unit. It serves to provide control during flight.

Plumage design

Consider an average aircraft,the tail section of which is made according to the classical scheme, characteristic of most military and civilian models. In this case, the horizontal tail will include a fixed part - the stabilizer (from the Latin Stabilis, stable) and a movable part - the elevator.

The stabilizer serves to stabilize the aircraft relative to the transverse axis. If the nose of the aircraft is lowered, then, accordingly, the tail section of the fuselage, together with the plumage, will rise up. In this case, the air pressure on the upper surface of the stabilizer will increase. The pressure generated will return the stabilizer (respectively, the fuselage) to its original position. When the nose of the fuselage is lifted up, the pressure of the air flow will increase on the lower surface of the stabilizer, and it will return to its original position again. Thus, automatic (without pilot intervention) stability of the aircraft in its longitudinal plane relative to the transverse axis is provided.

The rear of the aircraft also includes a vertical tail. Similar to the horizontal one, it consists of a fixed part - the keel, and a movable part - the rudder. The keel gives stability to the movement of the aircraft relative to its vertical axis in a horizontal plane. The principle of operation of the keel is similar to that of a stabilizer - when the nose deviates to the left, the keel deviates to the right, the pressure on its right plane increases and returns the keel (and the entire fuselage) to its previous position.

Thus, with respect to two axes, flight stability is ensured by the plumage. But there was one more axis - the longitudinal one. To provide automaticstability of movement relative to this axis (in the transverse plane) of the glider wing consoles are placed not horizontally, but at a certain angle relative to each other so that the ends of the consoles are deflected upwards. This placement resembles the letter "V".

Control systems

Control surfaces are important parts of an aircraft designed to control the aircraft. These include ailerons, rudders and elevators. Control is provided with respect to the same three axes in the same three planes.

The elevator is the movable rear part of the stabilizer. If the stabilizer consists of two consoles, then, accordingly, there are two elevators that deflect up or down, both synchronously. With it, the pilot can change the altitude of the aircraft.

The rudder is the movable rear part of the keel. When it is deflected in one direction or another, an aerodynamic force arises on it, which rotates the aircraft about a vertical axis passing through the center of mass, in the opposite direction from the direction of rudder deflection. The rotation continues until the pilot returns the rudder to neutral (not deflected) and the aircraft moves in the new direction.

Ailerons (from the French Aile, wing) are the main parts of the aircraft, which are the moving parts of the wing consoles. Serve to control the aircraft relative to the longitudinal axis (in the transverse plane). Since there are two wing consoles, there are also two ailerons. They work synchronously, but, unlike the elevators, they deviatenot in one direction, but in different directions. If one aileron deflects up, then the other down. On the wing console, where the aileron is deflected up, the lift decreases, and where it is down, it increases. And the fuselage of the aircraft rotates towards the raised aileron.

Engines

All aircraft are equipped with a power plant that allows them to develop speed, and, consequently, to ensure the occurrence of lift. Engines can be located at the rear of the aircraft (typical for jet aircraft), in front (light vehicles) and on the wings (civil aircraft, transports, bombers).

They are divided into:

• Jet - turbojet, pulsating, double-circuit, direct-flow.
• Propeller - piston (propeller), turboprop.
• Rocket - liquid, solid fuel.

Other systems

Of course, other parts of the aircraft are also important. Chassis allow aircraft to take off and land from equipped airfields. There are amphibious aircraft, where special floats are used instead of landing gear - they allow you to take off and land anywhere where there is a body of water (sea, river, lake). Models of light aircraft equipped with skis are known for operation in areas with stable snow cover.

Modern aircraft are stuffed with electronic equipment, communication devices and information transfer. Military aviation uses sophisticated weapon systems, target detection and signal suppression.

Classification

As intendedaircraft are divided into two large groups: civil and military. The main parts of a passenger aircraft are distinguished by the presence of an equipped cabin for passengers, which occupies most of the fuselage. A distinctive feature are the portholes on the sides of the hull.

Civil aircraft are divided into:

• Passenger - local airlines, long-haul short (range less than 2000 km), medium (range less than 4000 km), long-range (range less than 9000 km) and intercontinental (range more than 11,000 km).
• Cargo - light (cargo weight up to 10 tons), medium (cargo weight up to 40 tons) and heavy (cargo weight more than 40 tons).
• Special purpose - sanitary, agricultural, reconnaissance (ice reconnaissance, fish reconnaissance), fire fighting, for aerial photography.
• Educational.

Unlike civilian models, parts of a military aircraft do not have a comfortable cabin with windows. The main part of the fuselage is occupied by weapons systems, intelligence equipment, communications, engines and other units.

By purpose, modern military aircraft (considering the combat missions they perform) can be divided into the following types: fighters, attack aircraft, bombers (missile carriers), reconnaissance, military transport, special and auxiliary purposes.

Aircraft device

The design of aircraft depends on the aerodynamic design according to which they are made. The aerodynamic scheme is characterized by the number of basic elements and the location of the bearing surfaces. If the noseaircraft is similar for most models, the location and geometry of the wings and tail can vary greatly.

The following aircraft device schemes are distinguished:

• "Classic".
• Flying Wing.
• "Duck".
• "Tailless".
• "Tandem".
• Convertible schema.
• Combination scheme.

Classic aircraft

Let's consider the main parts of the aircraft and their purpose. The classic (normal) layout of components and assemblies is typical for most devices in the world, whether military or civilian. The main element - the wing - operates in a pure undisturbed flow, which smoothly flows around the wing and creates a certain lift.

The nose of the aircraft is reduced, which leads to a decrease in the required area (and hence the mass) of the vertical tail. This is because the forward fuselage induces a destabilizing yaw moment about the aircraft's vertical axis. Reducing the nose of the fuselage improves the view of the forward hemisphere.

The disadvantages of the normal scheme are:

• The operation of the horizontal tail (HA) in a canted and disturbed wing stream significantly reduces its efficiency, which necessitates the use of a larger area (and, consequently, mass) empennage.
• To ensure the stability of the flight, the vertical tail (VO) must create a negative lift, that is, directed downward. This reduces the overall efficiency of the aircraft: fromthe magnitude of the lift force that the wing creates, it is necessary to subtract the force that is created on the GO. To neutralize this phenomenon, a wing with an increased area (and, consequently, mass) should be used.

The device of the aircraft according to the "duck" scheme

With this design, the main parts of the aircraft are placed differently than in the "classic" models. First of all, the changes affected the layout of the horizontal tail. It is located in front of the wing. According to this scheme, the Wright brothers built their first aircraft.

Benefits:

• Vertical tail works in an undisturbed flow, which increases its efficiency.
• To ensure flight stability, the empennage generates positive lift, that is, it is added to the lift of the wing. This allows to reduce its area and, accordingly, its mass.
• Natural "anti-spin" protection: the possibility of transferring the wings to supercritical angles of attack for "ducks" is excluded. The stabilizer is installed so that it gets a higher angle of attack compared to the wing.
• Moving the focus of the aircraft back with increasing speed in the "duck" scheme occurs to a lesser extent than in the classical layout. This results in fewer changes in the degree of longitudinal static stability of the aircraft, in turn, simplifies the characteristics of its control.

Disadvantages of the "duck" scheme:

• When stalling on the empennage, not only does the aircraft reach lower angles of attack, but it also “sags” due to a decrease in its total lift. This is especially dangerous intakeoff and landing modes due to ground proximity.
• The presence of plumage mechanisms in the forward fuselage impairs visibility of the lower hemisphere.
• To reduce the area of the front HE, the length of the forward fuselage is made significant. This leads to an increase in the destabilizing moment relative to the vertical axis, and, accordingly, to an increase in the area and mass of the structure.

Tailless aircraft

In models of this type there is no important, familiar part of the aircraft. A photo of tailless aircraft (Concorde, Mirage, Vulcan) shows that they do not have horizontal tail. The main advantages of this scheme are:

• Reducing the frontal aerodynamic drag, which is especially important for aircraft with high speed, in particular, cruising. This reduces fuel costs.
• Higher torsional rigidity of the wing, which improves its aeroelastic characteristics, and high maneuverability characteristics are achieved.

Flaws:

• For balancing in some flight modes, part of the means of mechanization of the trailing edge of the wing (flaps) and control surfaces must be deflected upwards, which reduces the overall lift of the aircraft.
• Combination of aircraft controls relative to the horizontal and longitudinal axes (due to the absence of the elevator) worsens the characteristics of its handling. The absence of specialized plumage makes the control surfaces located on the trailing edge of the wing perform (withnecessary) duties and ailerons, and elevators. These control surfaces are called elevons.
• Using part of the mechanization equipment to balance the aircraft worsens its takeoff and landing performance.

Flying Wing

With this scheme, in fact, there is no such part of the aircraft as the fuselage. All the volumes necessary to accommodate the crew, payload, engines, fuel, equipment are located in the middle of the wing. This scheme has the following advantages:

• Least drag.
• The smallest mass of the structure. In this case, all the mass falls on the wing.
• Since the longitudinal dimensions of the aircraft are small (due to the lack of a fuselage), the destabilizing moment about its vertical axis is negligible. This allows designers to either significantly reduce the area of the VO, or even abandon it altogether (birds, as you know, have no vertical plumage).

The disadvantages include the difficulty of ensuring the stability of the flight of the aircraft.

Tandem

The "tandem" scheme, when two wings are located one after the other, is rarely used. This solution is used to increase the wing area with the same values of its span and fuselage length. This reduces the specific load on the wing. The disadvantages of this scheme is a large aerodynamic drag, an increase in the moment of inertia, especially in relation to the transverse axis of the aircraft. In addition, with an increase in flight speed, the characteristics of the longitudinal balancing of the aircraft change. Control surfaces on suchaircraft can be located both directly on the wings and on the plumage.

Combination circuit

In this case, the components of the aircraft can be combined using various design schemes. For example, horizontal tail is provided both in the nose and in the tail of the fuselage. The so-called direct lift control can be used on them.

In this case, the horizontal nose together with the flaps create additional lift. The pitching moment that occurs in this case will be aimed at increasing the angle of attack (the nose of the aircraft rises). To parry this moment, the tail unit must create a moment to reduce the angle of attack (the nose of the aircraft goes down). To do this, the force on the tail must also be directed upwards. That is, there is an increment in the lift force on the nose HE, on the wing and on the tail HE (and, consequently, on the entire aircraft) without turning it in the longitudinal plane. In this case, the aircraft simply rises without any evolution relative to its center of mass. And vice versa, with such an aerodynamic layout of the aircraft, it can carry out evolutions relative to the center of mass in the longitudinal plane without changing its flight path.

The ability to carry out such maneuvers significantly improves the performance characteristics of maneuverable aircraft. Especially in combination with a system of direct control of the lateral force, for the implementation of which the aircraft must have not only the tail, but also the nose longitudinal plumage.

Convertible Schema

The device of an aircraft built according to a convertible scheme is distinguished by the presence of a destabilizer in the forward fuselage. The function of the destabilizers is to reduce within certain limits, or even completely eliminate the rearward displacement of the aerodynamic focus of the aircraft in supersonic flight modes. This increases the maneuverability of the aircraft (which is important for a fighter) and increases the range or reduces fuel consumption (this is important for a supersonic passenger aircraft).

Destabilizers can also be used in takeoff/landing modes to compensate for the dive moment, which is caused by the deviation of the takeoff and landing mechanization (flaps, flaps) or the forward fuselage. In subsonic flight modes, the destabilizer is hidden in the middle of the fuselage or set to the weather vane mode (freely orientated along the flow).