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The two contending planes featured in "Battle of the X-Planes" make
use of radically different wing designs: one uses a
triangular-shaped delta wing; the other, traditional wings. Each
design has its advantages and disadvantages. The delta wing, for
example, has low drag at high speeds due to its swept-back shape,
and it weighs less, which allows more fuel to be carried. But the
delta wing has more drag when maneuvering. Traditional wings, on the
other hand, have less drag when maneuvering but more drag at high
speeds, and they are heavier.
Also affecting lift is the wing's airfoil shape—the shape of
the wing as seen in a cross-sectional view between the wing's
leading and trailing edges. Here the tradeoff is between lift and
drag, or how efficiently the airfoil moves through the air: a wing
with a lot of lift typically has a lot of drag, and a wing with
little drag typically has little lift. The two features below
present the basics of airfoil design and flight.
Note: The airfoil shapes, airflow diagrams, and lift and drag
numbers presented in "Wing Designs" were generated by the software
application VisualFoil. To learn more about VisualFoil, go to
www.hanleyinnovations.com.
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Wing Designs
(187k)
Experiment with various airfoil shapes to see the
advantages and disadvantages of each. Requires
Flash 5
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Flash is a plug-in that allows for increased
interactivity. If you can see the animated boxes at
left, the plugin is already installed. If you do not see
the boxes, you can
install the Flash plugin.
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