The Ground Effect (or Wing in Ground Effect) is a natural phenomenon that occurs due to vortices caused by a difference in pressure between the two sides of a wing. This effect can be very dangerous to inexperienced pilots, but can be utilized by creative engineers.
Nearly all pilots have experienced a strange phenomenon during landing. While everything is happening as it should during decent, a 'cushion' of air gets trapped below the wing during the last few meters to the runway. This throws off the rate of decent and can be dangerous if the pilot has already begun to flare up and decelerate for landing. This means the plane would climb again while slowing down, which would easily lead to a stall.
However, pilots who are aware of this effect can use it to their advantage. Pilots during World War II who had fuel leaks flew scant meters off the ground, conserving fuel until safe territory was reached.
This effect is not really caused by a cushion of air at all, rather, by vortices of air off the tips of the wings.
For a plane to create lift, its wings must create low pressure on top and high pressure on the bottom. However, at the tips of the wings, the high pressure pushes and the low pressure pulls air onto the top of the wing, reducing lift and creating a current flowing to the top. This current remains even after the wing has left the area, producing really awesome vortices.
This flow of air reduces the high pressure and increases the low pressure systems, thus reducing lift and increasing induced drag a great deal. However, once the plane nears the ground (usually half of the distance from the wingtip to fuselage) this flow is significantly reduced. Therefore, the lift is significantly increased. This is the ground effect.
Creative engineers can take advantage of the ground effect and create craft called Ekranoplans. These were gigantic boat planes built by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to transport large amounts of material quickly. These planes could only fly in the ground effect (over water, ice, or flat ground) but were very efficient.
It is estimated that pilot fatigue contributes to 15-20% of all fatal air accidents related to human error. It is precisely at the moment when most people would feel ‘dead tired’ at the end of a long working day, that pilots must be fully alert to make critical decisions, concentrate and ensure a safe landing. In any case, getting to one’s destination in one piece is much more important than the price of one’s ticket
Instead of just falling to the ground it went up to the ceiling and from there it slowly descended. But eventually it broke and they were inspired to make more which eventually sparked their idea to invent the glider. “It flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered a while, and finally sank to the floor.” (The Wright Brothers 39)
First of all you will have to understand the principles of flight. An airplane flies because air moving over and under its surfaces, particularly its wings, travels at different velocities, producing a difference in air pressure, low above the wing and high below it. The low pressure exerts a pulling influence, and the high pressure a pushing influence. The lifting force, usually called lift, depends on the shape, area, and tilt of the wing, and on the speed of the aircraft. The shape of the wing causes the air streaming above and below the wing to travel at different velocities. The greater distance over which the air must travel above the curved upper surface forces that air to move faster to keep pace with the air moving along the flat lower surface. According to Bernoulli’s principle, it is this difference in air velocity that produces the difference in air pressure.
Lift or curve in the motion of an object through air is a phenomena that is noticeable in a ball traveling through fluid/air. This change in direction is due to the effect that spin has on the object in motion. This can be explained by Bernoulli's Principle. Bernoulli, a 1700's physicist and mathematician, showed that the speed of an object through liquid/air changes the pressure of the air. The velocity of a spinning ball relative to the air is different from one side to the other creating a low pressure on one side and a high pressure on the other. This causes the ball to move in the direction of the lower pressure. The golf ball is typically hit with an undercut causing a reverse rotation and therefore a lifting action on the ball.
Ground yourself, by imangining your feet sinking into the earth. Imagine sunlight comeing down through you, around you and into the earth. Hold this idea for a couple of minutes.
All flight is the result of forces acting upon the wings of an airplane that allow it to counteract gravity. Contrary to popular belief, the Bernoulli principle is not responsible for most of the lift generated by an airplanes wings. Rather, the lift is created by air being deflected off the wings and transferring an upward force to those wings.
As soon as the plane lands, knowing that the walking way is too congested and has only space for one person, still people would rush as there is fire in the plane henceforth, makes you as well as others irate. You have stepped at your destination but go again through security check taking off your shoes and valuables. Accordingly, you have to hold up your horses and hanker for your cumbersome luggage. After receiving the bulky luggage, you have to take them on your carts and cautiously move them out of airport without getting them down.
Wings create lift for the upward force of an airplane. A great example of how this happens is sticking your hand out of a car window driving down the freeway. The force on your flat palm causes a force that can lift your hand up or down by changing the
The history of flying dates back as early as the fifteenth century. A Renaissance man named Leonardo da Vinci introduced a flying machine known as the ornithopter. Da Vinci proposed the idea of a machine that had bird like flying capabilities. Today no ornithopters exist due to the restrictions of humans, and that the ornithopters just aren’t practical. During the eighteenth century a philosopher named Sir George Cayley had practical ideas of modern aircraft. Cayley never really designed any workable aircraft, but had many incredible ideas such as lift, thrust, and rigid wings to provide for lift. In the late nineteenth century the progress of aircraft picks up. Several designers such as Henson and Langley, both paved the way for the early 1900’s aircraft design. Two of the most important people in history of flight were the Wright Brothers. The Wright Brothers were given the nickname the “fathers of the heavier than air flying machine” for their numerous flights at their estate in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright created a motor-powered biplane in which they established incredible feats of the time. The Wright Brothers perfected their design of the heavier than air flying ma...
The basic concepts of lift for an airplane is seen. The air that is flowing splits to move around a wing. The air that that moves over the wing speeds up creating lower pressure which means that the higher pressure from the air moving slower under the wing pushes up trying to equalize the pressure. The lift generated can be affected by the angle at which the wing is moving into the flowing air. The more surface area of the wing resisting against the flow of air can either generate lift or make the plane dive. This can be easily simulated in everday life. Next time you are riding in a car with someone stick your hand out the window. Have your fingers pointing in the direction of the motion of the vehicle. Now move your hand up and down slightly. You can feel the lift and drag that your hand creates.
There is an old saying that any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. There is a lot of truth to this statement, especially if you are the one walking away. Here are the stories of two such landings that I am personally familiar with. Since they are both very similar in nature, they will be discussed simultaneously in the pages to follow. N9KF was a Model 1 Kitfox. It was built and flown by my father. The Kitfox is an experimental, homebuilt kit plane. Every plane, like every person, has a story. This is the story of N9KF or at least the story as I know it.
This term paper reviews the three most common catagories of aviation accident causes and factors. The causes and factors that will be discussed are human performance, environmental, and the aircraft itself. Although flying is one of the safest means of transportation, accidents do happen. It is the investigators job to determine why the accident happened, and who or what was at fault. In the event of an accident, either one or all of these factors will be determined as the cause of the accident. Also discussed will be one of the most tradgic plane crashes in aviation history and the human factors involved.
An object that is falling through the atmosphere is subjected to two external forces. The first force is the gravitational force, expressed as the weight of the object. The weight equation which is weight (W) = mass (M) x gravitational acceleration (A) which is 9.8 meters per square second on the surface of the earth. The gravitational acceleration decreases with the square of the distance from the center of the earth. If the object were falling in a vacuum, this would be the only force acting on the object. But in the atmosphere, the motion of a falling object is opposed by the air resistance or drag. The drag equation tells us that drag is equal to a coefficient times one half the air density (R) times the velocity (V) squared times a reference area on which the drag coefficient is based.
Subsequently, this kind of the long-distance effect had to occur more and more away from the position of launching to prevent self-damage. Therefore, the fulfillment of a long dream of the human race, to be able to fly, came just in time – and now, not everything that came from above was good anymore.
Airplane decent and landing accidents have been statistically proven to be one of the most common forms of airplane incidents. Ultimately accounting for about 37% airplane accidents, there are several different stages of the decent and landing process and several mechanical issues as well as a lack of focus on the part of the pilot can contribute to a faulty landing, ultimately resulting in a minor or fatal crash (Tullo, 2001).