Remove Airfoil Remove Stability Remove Tail
article thumbnail

Tailless Aircraft: How Airplanes Fly Without a Tail

Pilot Institute

Have you ever seen an airplane with no tail and no vertical fin, but with just a sleek wing? They prove that with the right aerodynamic tricks, you dont need a tail to fly. A tailless aircraft is a fixed-wing airplane without a horizontal stabilizing surface. Directional (yawing) stability from the vertical stabilizer.

article thumbnail

Mach Number Explained: What It Is and Why Pilots Use It

Pilot Institute

When you reach around 36,000 feet (11,000 m) near the tropopause, the temperature stabilizes at around -56.5 °C. Making the wing relatively flat on top with a blunter leading edge and more curvature on the bottom gives you a supercritical airfoil. The problem is that the tail itself might be in trouble.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Flight Test Files: Grumman F-14 Tomcat

Vintage Aviation News

The F-14s unique roll control setup, which relies on differential horizontal stabilizers and spoilers rather than traditional ailerons, provided effective control at various speeds but also introduced side forces that could contribute to spin entry. View of the cockpit of NASA’s F-14, tail number 991.

article thumbnail

Flight Test Files: Convair XF-92A Dart

Vintage Aviation News

The delta wing’s large area (425 square feet), thin airfoil cross section, low weight, and structural strength made a great combination for a supersonic aircraft. feet high at the tip of the vertical stabilizer. It was built as a test bed for a proposed interceptor that never materialized. feet long, had a 31.3-foot

article thumbnail

The Role of Newton’s Third Law in Aviation

Pilot Institute

They are designed with a special shape called an airfoil, which encourages passing air to turn and deflect downward. This is why the typical airfoil shape has a curved top and a flat bottom, especially in slower-speed general aviation aircraft. Other Designs The tail rotor is not the only way to solve the torque reaction problem.

article thumbnail

Today in Aviation History: First Flight of the Bell P-63 Kingcobra

Vintage Aviation News

It featured a laminar flow airfoil, the Allison V-1710 was fitted with a second supercharger, a four-bladed propeller was installed, and the nose cowlings to access the airplane’s 37mm gun and two Browing M2.50 However, the US Army Air Force was still interested in an improved version of the P-39, and so a new design was drafted.

article thumbnail

The Albree Pigeon-Fraser: The First American Fighter

Vintage Aviation News

The Pigeon-Fraser Model SG was powered by a single 100hp Gnme rotary engine, had a length of 24 feet with a wingspan of 37 feet, 11 inches, and its single-set of wings featured a flat-bottomed airfoil. But the most radical feature of the Pigeon-Fraser was Albree’s all-moving tail design. serial numbers 116 and 117, with U.S.