Pilot Institute

JUNE 4, 2025

Use of Reflex Airfoils Ever notice how many tailless aircraft have wings that curve at the trailing edge? This type of design is a reflex airfoil. The reflexed shape of the airfoil usually causes a positive (nose-up) pitching moment coefficient at its aerodynamic center. Flying wings dont have tails or elevators.

Tail 52

Tail Airplanes Weight-Shift-Control Drag 52

Vintage Aviation News

APRIL 18, 2025

The aircraft also participated in studies involving low-altitude flight with asymmetric engine thrust. These glove modifications served to smooth the wing surface and alter the airfoil to achieve specific pressure distributions. View of the cockpit of NASA’s F-14, tail number 991.

Horizontal Stabilizer 52

Horizontal Stabilizer Aileron Tail Airfoil 52

Pilot Institute

JUNE 12, 2025

You can adjust the wings using a manual control in the cockpit. According to Robert Gregg, Boeing’s chief aerodynamicist , supercritical airfoils help delay shock waves by managing how pressure waves behave at high speeds. Supercritical wings reduce this effect, lowering drag, thrust requirements, and takeoff and landing distances.

Weight-Shift-Control 52

Weight-Shift-Control Drag Lift Payload 52

Air Facts

JULY 22, 2024

The Four Forces of Flight (Lift, Thrust, Drag & Gravity) obey Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. irplane controls work per the Lever Principle, and a wing’s airfoil shape increases lift via the Bernouilli Principle and Coanda Effect. Like Moses and the Ten Commandments, aviation is limited by 10 laws of physics and chemistry.

Lift 98

Lift Knot Airfoil Airplanes 98

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 3, 2024

The airfoil is a Harry Riblett shape, giving modernized flow separation on the leading edge for a soft stall yet with good lift and drag performance. After squeezing through the landing gear houses I settled into the right seat for our evaluation flights because frankly, this is a complex airplane with a complex cockpit.

Airplanes 79

Airplanes Rudder Knot Aileron 79