General Aircraft Knowledge

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General Aircraft Knowledge

• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serkan ÖZGEN
• METU, Dept. Aerospace Eng.
• Spring 2008-2009

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Outline

• Fuselage, wings, tailplane, fin.
• Primary flight controls.
• Landing gear.
• Flight instruments.

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Fuselage

• Fuselage forms the body of an airplane to which
  the wings, tail, engine and landing gear are
  attached.
• The fuselage of many modern airplanes is of
  semi-monocoque construction, a light framework
  covered by skin.
• The internal framework carries almost all of the
  stress (load), while the skin, which is like an
  egg shell carries the remaining stress.

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Fuselage
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Wings

• The wings designed to generate lift and are
  exposed to high loads that can exceed the total
  weight of the airplane during maneuvers.
• Wings generally have one or more spars attached
  to the fuselage and extending to the wingtips.
  They carry major loads. They bend upward when
  there is lift and downward when the airplane is
  on ground.
• Some wings have struts.

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Wings with struts
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Wings

• Ribs are roughly perpendicular to the spars. They
  provide the airfoil shape and stiffen the skin
  attched to them. The ribs transmit loads between
  the skin and spars.
• Ailerons are fitted at the outer trailing edge of
  each wing and move in opposite directions to
  control roll.
• Flaps are fitted on the inner trailing edges and
  are lowered to increase the lift and drag so that
  an unaccelerated, steep descent could be
  maintained during landing.
• Wings may also contain fuel tanks.

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Wings
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Tailplane and fin

• The tail is generally similar to the wings and
  consists of a vertical and horizontal stabilizer
  to which the rudder and the elevator are
  attached.
• The elevator and on some airplanes the rudder
  will have trim tabs.

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Primary flying controls

• Each of the three primary control surfaces moves
  the airplane about one of the three axes of
  flight.
• The ailerons bank or roll the airplane about its
  longitudinal axis.
• The rudder yaws the airplane about its vertical
  axis.
• The elevator moves the airplane about its lateral
  axis changing the airplanes pitch attittude.

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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Primary flying controls
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Landing gear

• The landing gear (or undercarriage) supports the
  weight of the airplane when it is on the ground.
• May be a tricycle type with a nosegear or a
  tailwheel type.
• Most tricycle landing gears have nosewheel
  steering through rudder pedals and almost all
  airplanes have main gear brakes.
• Advanced airplanes have retractable landing gear,
  while some other have fixed landing gear.

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Landing gear - tailwheel
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Landing gear - tricycle
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Landing gear - retractable
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Flight instruments

• The altimeter indicates the height of the
  airplane from the sea-level or a determined
  reference altitude.

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Flight instruments

• The airspeed indicator indicates the speed at
  which an airplane moves through air in knots
  (nm/h, 1 knot 1.8532 km/h).

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Flight instruments

• The vertical speed indicator displays the rate at
  which the airplane is climbing or descending in
  100ft/min.

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Flight instruments

• The gyro-compass or the bearing indicator
  displays the direction at which the airplane is
  flying.

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Flight instruments

• The artificial horizon displays the attitude of
  an airplane with respect to the horizon.

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Flight instruments

• The turn and slip indicator indicates whether an
  airplane is performing a coordinated turn, i.e.
  it is not skidding out of the turn or not
  slipping into the turn.

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Flight instruments
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Flight instruments
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