PHAK 4-6

8 64 2 0 I0 VELOCITY 8 64 2 0 I0 PRESSURE 8 64 2 0 I0 VELOCITY 8 64 2 0 I0 PRESSURE 8 64 2 0 I0 VELOCITY 8 64 2 0 I0 PRESSURE Figure 4-4. Air pressure decreases in a venturi tube. When a body is acted upon by a constant force, its resulting acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the body and is directly proportional to the applied force. This takes into account the factors involved in overcoming Newton’s First Law. It covers both changes in direction and speed, including starting up from rest (positive acceleration) and coming to a stop (negative acceleration or deceleration). Newton’s Third Law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In an airplane, the propeller moves and pushes back the air; consequently, the air pushes the propeller (and thus the airplane) in the opposite direction—forward. In a jet airplane, the engine pushes a blast of hot gases backward; the force of equal and opposite reaction pushes against the engine and forces the airplane forward. Bernoulli’s Principle of Differential Pressure A half-century after Newton formulated his laws, Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician, explained how the pressure of a moving fluid (liquid or gas) varies with its speed of motion. Bernoulli’s Principle states that as the velocity of a moving fluid (liquid or gas) increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. This principle explains what happens to air passing over the curved top of the airplane wing. A practical application of Bernoulli’s Principle is the venturi tube. The venturi tube has an air inlet that narrows to a throat (constricted point) and an outlet section that increases in diameter toward the rear. The diameter of the outlet is the same as that of the inlet. The mass of air entering the tube must exactly equal the mass exiting the tube. At the constriction, the speed must increase to allow the same amount of air to pass in the same amount of time as in all other parts of the tube. When the air speeds up, the pressure also decreases. Past the constriction, the airflow slows and the pressure increases. [Figure 4-4] Since air is recognized as a body, and it is understood that air will follow the above laws, one can begin to see how and why an airplane wing develops lift. As the wing moves through the air, the flow of air across the curved top surface increases in velocity creating a low-pressure area. Although Newton, Bernoulli, and hundreds of other early scientists who studied the physical laws of the universe did not have the sophisticated laboratories available today, they provided great insight to the contemporary viewpoint of how lift is created. Airfoil Design An airfoil is a structure designed to obtain reaction upon its surface from the air through which it moves or that moves past such a structure. Air acts in various ways when submitted to different pressures and velocities; but this discussion is confined to the parts of an aircraft that a pilot is most concerned with in flight—namely, the airfoils designed to produce lift. By looking at a typical airfoil profile, such as the cross section of a wing, one can see several obvious characteristics of design. [Figure 4-5] Notice that there is a difference in the curvatures (called cambers) of the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil. The camber of the upper surface is more pronounced than that of the lower surface, which is usually somewhat flat. NOTE: The two extremities of the airfoil profile also differ in appearance. The rounded end, which faces forward in flight, is called the leading edge; the other end, the trailing edge, is quite narrow and tapered. A reference line often used in discussing the airfoil is the chord line, a straight line drawn through the profile connecting the extremities of the leading and trailing edges. The distance from this chord line to the upper and lower surfaces of the wing denotes the magnitude of the upper and lower camber at any point. Another reference line, drawn