aerospace

                            AerospaceAdvanced aerospace vehicles are key to national security, transportation, mobility, freedom, and our quality of life. The answer to ensuring the continued viability of aviation is not through evolutionary or near-term approaches alone, but through careful development of revolutionary, long-term approaches utilizing emerging technologies. The significant advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology are opening the door to a new era in aircraft development resulting in designs that will be radically different from today's aircraft.

Aircraft of the future will not be built of traditional, multiple, mechanically connected parts and systems. Instead, aircraft wing construction will employ fully integrated, embedded "smart" materials and actuators that will enable aircraft wings with unprecedented levels of aerodynamic efficiencies and aircraft control.

Able to respond to the constantly varying conditions of flight, sensors will act like the "nerves" in a bird's wing and will measure the pressure over the entire surface of the wing. The response to these measurements will direct actuators, which will function like the bird's wing "muscles." Just as a bird instinctively uses different feathers on its wings to control its flight, the actuators will change the shape of the aircraft's wings to continually optimize flying conditions. Active flow control effectors will help mitigate adverse aircraft motions when turbulent air conditions are encountered.

Intelligent systems composed of these sensors, actuators, microprocessors, and adaptive controls will provide an effective "central nervous system" for stimulating the structure to effect an adaptive "physical response." The central nervous system will provide many advantages over current technologies. Proposed 21st Century Aerospace Vehicles will be able to monitor their own performance, environment, and even their operators in order to improve safety and fuel efficiency, and minimize airframe noise. They will also have systems that will allow for safe takeoffs and landings from short airfields enabling access to this country's more than 5,400 rural/regional airports.

                     Aerodynamics uses:
 Aircraft Aerodynamics is fairly simple. There are 4 extremely basic forces occurring on a plane.
Thrust:
The amount the plane is propelled forward. ie the engines pushing it forward
Drag:
The natural "drag" created by the planes weight. The force countering thrust. If thrust does not overpower drag the plane stops moving forward.
Gravity:
The Force pulling the plane back down to Earth. If Lift doesn't counter Gravity, the plane will either not take off, or crash and burn.
Lift:
Lift is the creation of a high and low air pressure below and above the wing (respectively).

Wing shape will effect the amount of air pressure on the wing. Usually the wind shape has a flat or ever so slightly curved bottom so that the air can get from beginning of wing to end of wing at same speed whereas the air flowing over the large curve at top of wing has to travel faster to rejoin the air going under the wing. This is the basics of why planes fly...etc

Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air.    

Studying the motion of air around an object allows us to measure the forces of lift, which allows an aircraft to overcome gravity, and drag, which is the resistance an aircraft “feels” as it moves through the air. Everything moving through the air (including airplanes, rockets, and birds) is affected by aerodynamics.

In this section, we will explore how lift and drag work at both subsonic speeds—slower than the speed of sound—and, later, at supersonic speeds—faster than the speed of sound.

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics
What is aerodynamics? The word comes from two Greek words: aerios, concerning the air, anddynamis, which means force. Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air. Judging from the story of Daedalus and Icarus, humans have been interested in aerodynamics and flying for thousands of years, although flying in a heavier-than-air machine has been possible only in the last hundred years. Aerodynamics affects the motion of a large airliner,a model rocket, a beach ball thrown near the shore, or a kite flying high overhead. The curveball thrown by big league baseball pitchers gets its curve from aerodynamics.
At this Web site you can study aerodynamics at your own pace and to your own level of interest. Some of the topics included are: Newton's basic equations of motion; the motion of a free falling object, that neglects the effects of aerodynamics; the terminal velocity of a falling object subject to both weight and air resistance; the three forces (lift, drag, and weight) that act on a glider; and finally, the four forces that act on a powered airplane. Because aerodynamics involves both the motion of the object and the reaction of the air, there are several pages devoted to basic gas properties and how those properties change through the atmosphere. This site was created at NASA Glenn as part of the Learning Technologies Project (LTP). It is currently supported by theAeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA HQ through the Educational Programs Office at NASA Glenn. The purpose for this web site is to provide background information on basic aerodynamics as teaching aids for math and science teachers. Some of the slides were prepared to support FoilSim, an interactive educational computer program that allows students to design and test airfoil shapes on a personal computer. Other slides were prepared to support the Digital Learning Network (DLN) videoconferencing workshops for teachers and students. The slides were collected into Power Point Presentations which are made available to teachers and students. There is a special section of the Beginner's Guide which deals with compressible, or high speed, aerodynamics. This section is intended for undergraduates who are studying shock waves or isentropic flows and contains several calculators and simulators for that flow regime. This site has been intentionally organized to mirror the unstructured nature of the world wide web. There are many pages here connected to one another through hyperlinks and you can then navigate through the links based on your own interest and inquiry. There is an Aerodynamics Index of topics that you can access from any page, so you are never more than two clicks away from any other Web page at this site. However, if you prefer a more structured approach, you can also take one of our Guided Tours through the site. Each tour pro

introduction to aerodynamics

Aerodynamics, from Greek ἀήρ aer (air) + δυναμική (dynamics), is a branch of Fluid dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a solid object, such as an airplane wing. Aerodynamics is a sub-field of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, and many aspects of aerodynamics theory are common to these fields. The termaerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with the difference being that "gas dynamics" applies to the study of the motion of all gases, not limited to air.

Formal aerodynamics study in the modern sense began in the eighteenth century, although observations of fundamental concepts such as aerodynamic drag have been recorded much earlier. Most of the early efforts in aerodynamics worked towards achieving heavier-than-air flight, which was first demonstrated by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903. Since then, the use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximations,wind tunnel experimentation, and computer simulations has formed the scientific basis for ongoing developments in heavier-than-air flight and a number of other technologies. Recent work in aerodynamics has focused on issues related to compressible flow, turbulence, and boundary layers, and has become increasingly computational in nature.