LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Airplane: Wings
built 846 days ago
The evolution of the airplane engine has had a major effect upon aircraft design, which is closely associated with the ratio between power load (horsepower) and weight. The Wright brothers' first engine weighed about 12 lb (5.4 kg) per horsepower. The modern piston engine weighs about 1 lb (0.4 kg) or less per horsepower, and jet and gas-turbine engines are much lighter. With the use of jet engines and the resulting higher speeds, airplanes have become less dependent on large values of lift from the wings. Consequently, wings have been shortened and swept back so as to produce less drag, especially at supersonic speeds. In some cases these radically backswept wings have evolved into a single triangular lifting surface, known as a delta wing, that is bisected by the fuselage of the plane.
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An airplane in flight is the center of a continuous tug of war between four forces: lift, gravity force or weight, thrust, and drag. Lift and Drag are considered aerodynamic forces because they exist due to the movement of the aircraft through the air. The weight pulls down on the plane opposing the lift created by air flowing over the wing. Thrust is generated by the propeller and opposes drag caused by air resistance to the frontal area of the airplane. During take off, thrust must overcome drag and lift must overcome the weight before the airplane can become airborne. In level flight at constant speed, thrust exactly equals drag and lift exactly equals the weight or gravity force. For landings thrust must be reduced below the level of drag and lift below the level of the gravity force or weight.
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Lift is one of the four primary forces acting upon an airplane. The others are weight, thrust, and drag. Weight is the force that offsets lift, because it acts in the opposite direction. The weight of the airplane must be overcome by the lift produced by the wings. If an airplane weighs 4.5 metric tons, then the lift produced by its wings must be greater than 4.5 metric tons in order for the airplane to leave the ground. Designing a wing that is powerful enough to lift an airplane off the ground, and yet efficient enough to fly at high speeds over extremely long distances, is one of the marvels of modern aircraft technology.
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The airplane has six main parts—fuselage, wings, stabilizer (or tail plane), rudder, one or more engines, and landing gear. The fuselage is the main body of the machine, customarily streamlined in form. It usually contains control equipment, and space for passengers and cargo. The wings are the main supporting surfaces. Modern airplanes are monoplanes (airplanes with one wing) and may be high-wing, mid-wing, or low-wing (relative to the bottom of the fuselage). At the trailing edge of the wings are auxiliary hinged surfaces known as ailerons that are used to gain lateral control and to turn the airplane.
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The tail is the rear part of the airplane. It helps guide the plane and keep it balanced. Like the wing, it has parts that move. The rudder is a hinged plate on the back of the fin, the upright part of the tail. It helps the plane turn left or right. A flap called the elevator helps raise or lower the plane's nose.
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Orville and Wilbur Wright, American inventors and aviation pioneers, achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight of an airplane.on the morning of December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft, along with many other aviation milestones. Source: Invention Dimension
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