THE AIRPLANE

The PartsOf The Airplane

The fuselage houses the cabin and/or cockpit which contains seats for the occupants and the controls for the airplane (Jeppesen)

Fuselage

The empennage consists of the vertical stabilizer, or fin, and the horizontal stabilizer. These two surfaces act like feathers on an arrow to steady the airplane (Jeppesen) Empennage Horiz. Stabilizer Vert.

Stabilizer

The wheels of an airplane are attached to the airplane structure by struts that usually have some ability to absorb the shock of landing and taxiing over rough ground (Jeppesen)

Landing Gear

In small airplanes the powerplant includes both the engine and the propeller (Jeppesen)

Powerplant

When air flows over the wings of an airplane it generates a force called lift that helps the airplane fly (Jeppesen)

Wings

The ailerons move in opposite directions (when one goes up the other goes down) to make the plane turn. For example, when the left aileron is lifted, the right is dropped proportionally, and the lift is decreased on the left, causing the plane to turn left (Jeppesen)

Aileron

The flaps extend during takeoff and landing to increase the lift of the wings (Jeppesen)

Flaps

So how does the lift work? Lift is created by Bernoulli’s Principle,

which means: The fluid pressure decreases as the speed of a moving fluid increases

*fluid: liquid or gas: a substance whose molecules flow freely, so that it has no fixed shape and little resistance to outside stress, e.g. a liquid or gas (Encarta Dictionary)

What type of instruments do pilots

use?

Altimeter: tool for measuring elevation Mechanical altimeters measure the

plane’s distance to sea level (Britannica)

Radio altimeters measure the plane’s distance to ground level (Britannica)

Airspeed indicator: tool to measure how fast you are traveling

The airspeed indicator uses two measurements to compute how fast you are moving

1. Pitot tube: a tube that faces the stream of fluid (the air), this measures how much air is rushing in

2. Static tube: this tube is shielded from the moving air, it determines how much air pressure there is at your current altitude

These two figures are used to figure out your speed

Vertical speed indicator: measures at what rate your are climbing or descending VSI is calculated by measuring the rate

at which the outside air pressure is increasing or decreasing

Gyroscopic instruments

Gyroscopes work because the heavy ring in the center (the one spinning on the axle) will always remain in the same position, but the outer rings will tilt with the motion of the

plane. Which makes

them useful f for measuring

turns (Jeppesen)

Turn coordinator: tool for measuring your turns

Using the gyroscope, this device gives you a guide to know what degree of turn you need to take, in order to accomplish a standard turn.

Magnetic compass: a tool for comparing your direction to the magnetic north pole

This device can be very useful, assuming you know its limitations. Magnetic north (what the needle is attracted to,

is often a few degrees different than geographical north (what we think the north pole is on maps)

Thank you for watching this presentation. I hope that you enjoyed it, and that you were able to learn something new.

Sources:

1. Guided Flight Discovery: Private Pilot. Jeppesen. 1997.

2. MSN Encarta Dictionary. Entry: Fluid.

3. Encyclopedia Britannica. Entry: Altimeter.