At at RAF base near my house there is a statue of an (raltivly little) airplane with the wings pointing down at a 45 degree angle. Yet the airplanes I go on holiday on (jumbo jets) have wings that point straight out at a ninety degree angle. Is this difference to do with the size of the plane? Or is it because the RAF planes are designed for combat and speed, not carrying passengers like the jumbo jets.
2006-12-23 02:08:10 · 3 answers · asked by scaryclairy 4 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
It's a aerodynamics concept known as "negative dihedral" or "anhedral."
It's one of many ways to increase stabilization in a particular airframe design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dihedral.harrier.arp.750pix.jpg
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dtu-154%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=900&h=602&imgurl=www.luftfahrt.net%2Fgalerie%2Fnew%2Fbilder%2F1039506304_pulkovo-aviation_tu154_ra85187_01.JPG&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luftfahrt.net%2Fgalerie%2Fshowpix.php%3Fid%3D8807&size=116.1kB&name=1039506304_pulkovo-aviation_tu154_ra85187_01.JPG&p=tu-154&type=jpeg&no=10&tt=8,230&oid=5d81e58229424066&ei=UTF-8
2006-12-23 02:27:18 · answer #1 · answered by 4999_Basque 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not quite sure about which angle you were talking about when you wrote "pointing down".
As you say the angle was around 45 degrees, I guess what you saw is a sharply swept back wing, probably of an English Electric Lightning (look at this photo: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1118870&size=L).
Swept wings are a typical feature high speed aircraft. What they do, is mainly improving stability and handling during trans-sonic speeds (i.e. towards breaking the speed of sound). You may find it odd, but today's passanger jets are quite slower than older types. Early jets, like the Boeing 707 and Convair 880, had swept back wings. Modern jets, like Airbus 320 or Boeing 767, focus on economic and quiet cruising. They are far from trans-sonic, thus they don't need swept back wings. Plus, there had been a vast progress in aerofoil design, and at certain flight envelopes, modern "super critical" wings do a better job than swept-back ones.
The other option is anhedral wing: wings that - looking head-on on an aircraft - are "bent" down (like this: ^). Anhedral is a typical configuration in aircraft with shoulder mounted wings. Such aircraft tend to be "too much" stable, and the anhedral sort of fixes that. If this is what you'd meant, perhaps what you saw was a Bae Harrier (photo: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1137849&size=L).
2006-12-23 06:09:23 · answer #2 · answered by ashtray 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not sure what aircraft you are referring to, but sounds like yes - you answered your own question - swept wings are typically designed for speed and manuverability...
Commercial Pilot, A&P
2006-12-23 02:17:48 · answer #3 · answered by Loadbetty 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋