WINGS & TAILPLANE

Airframes
Class 27
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Learning Objectives
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss in more detail, 2
of the 4 major components, the Wing (or mainplane) and
the Tailplane.

By the end of the lesson you should have an
understanding of the main functions of this most important
of the main components of an aircraft, as well as its
construction.

But first a recap of previous class with some questions.

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Questions
1. Why are windows elliptical?

2. What is a Welded Steel Truss?

3. Why do we pressurise the fuselage?

4. What parts of a Combat Aircraft are pressurised?
5. What are the 3 distinct parts of a fuselage?

6. Why are civil airliner fuselages generally circular in section?

7. What is a semi-monocoque fuselage?

8. What forces and loads must the fuselage cope with?




Why are windows elliptical?

To allow for doors and windows, the fuselage must also
include cut-outs, but this causes the engineers structural
problems, why?

The fuselage needs to be strengthened around them.

It is important to make sure that loads can be
routed around these cut-outs, and spread evenly
into surrounding skin and structure.
The ideal shape for a cut-out in a
fuselage is an ellipse, and many
aircraft have windows this shape.

What is a Welded Steel Truss?

In a Welded Steel Truss, the structural elements resemble
those of a bridge, with emphasis on using linked
trianglular elements.

The aerodynamic shape is completed by additional elements
called Frames and Stringers and is then covered with fabric,
metal sheeting or composite.
Why do we pressurise the fuselage?

When aircraft fly at
high altitudes, they are
more fuel efficient.

At such altitudes the
passengers and crew
would find it
uncomfortable, or even
impossible to survive.
So the inside air of the
fuselage is pressurised
to simulate a lower
altitude

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What are the 3 distinct parts of a fuselage?

There are three distinct parts of the
fuselage:

The nose section
The centre section
The aft or rear section

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Why are civil airliner fuselages
generally circular in section?

The reason is that this is a
convenient shape for carrying
cargo or passengers, and makes it
possible to stretch the aircraft.
This results in mainly cylindrical
fuselages, with tapered nose and tail
sections.
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What is a semi-monocoque
fuselage?
The monocoque design relies on the strength of the stressed skin within
the airframe structure to share the loads, allowing for a much-reduced
internal structure.
The monocoque design can be further sub-divided into three classes:

True Monocoque: Consists of formers, frame assemblies and
bulkheads to provide shape with the skin carrying the primary stress, but
suffers from poor strength to weight ratios

Semi-Monocoque: Overcomes the strength to weight ratio of the
True Monocoque by reinforcing the skin with longitudinal members

Reinforced Shell: The skin is reinforced by a complete framework of
structural members.

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Fuselage Forces
As mentioned earlier, the fuselage forms a structural link
between the wings and the tail unit.

It has to keep everything in the correct position and
angles, and be capable of resisting the loads that they all
impose upon it.

So all these forces are acting at the same time another
difficult structural problem for the aircraft designer.
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The Wing
From Principles of Flight, you will know that to
fly, an aircraft must have wings designed to
generate lift from the airflow over them.

To take off and climb, the wings must produce
more lift than the aircrafts total weight.


If a fighter aircraft was to fly in a very tight turn,
the wings must then produce lift equal to
perhaps eight times the aircraft weight.
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The Wing
For level flight the lift produced must equal the aircrafts
weight.

For landing, where the slowest possible landing speed
is required, enough lift must be produced to keep the
aircraft flying at low speeds.

For this it will normally have special devices added - flaps,
leading-edge slats

The shape of the aircraft is extremely important,
because it dictates how well the aircraft can does its
job. For a slow-flying aircraft which needs to lift heavy
loads, a large wing is needed, together with a fairly light
structure. For fast jets, a much smaller wing is required,
and the aircraft will be more streamlined.
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Wing Loading
One of the most important factors in an aircraft design is its
wing loading, which is simply its weight divided
by its wing area.

The weight of the aircraft can vary, both with the load it is
carrying and as a result of flight manoeuvres

Flying at 4g in a turn increases an aircrafts effective weight to
four times its normal weight, so its wing loading will change.

A useful guide is to use the maximum take-off weight
(MTOW) to calculate a standard wing loading.

Light aircraft will normally have the lowest wing loading, and
fast jets the highest, with transport aircraft in between.
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Design Considerations
For aircraft flying at, or near supersonic speeds, the
way in which air flows over the aircraft is very different,
and can create problems.




An aircraft flying quite slowly through the air generates
pressure waves, which move at the speed of sound.

At speeds near the speed of sound a shock wave forms
on the leading parts of the aircraft. The air behind this
shock wave becomes turbulent, causing loss of lift,
increased drag, changes in trim and buffeting of controls.
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Sweep-Back The Solution
Designers can reduce the effects of these problems with
better designs, particularly swept-back wings.

However, these features can cause other problems,
because they are more difficult and expensive to
build.

Once above the speed of sound, the airflow is steady
again, although different to subsonic conditions.

The curved shapes that worked well at lower speeds are
no longer the most efficient, and straight lines and sharp
edges are now preferred.

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Wing Planform
The planform of wings becomes more important than their
section, and low aspect ratio and sharper sweepback may
be necessary.

The main disadvantage of swept-back wings is that
they produce much less lift than an un-swept wing of
the same area and aspect ratio.
This means that when the aircraft is flying slowly, for instance
during landings, a larger angle of attack is required to provide
enough lift.

This can cause problems with landing gear and in
pilot visibility.
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Swing Wings
Being able to change the amount of sweepback in flight
would be a way towards getting the best in both situations.

This has been done on many high speed military aircraft

In the swept forward position it gives high aspect ratio wing for
low-speed performance, allowing tight turns at low speeds and
making flaps more effective for take-off and landing.

In the swept back position, it is highly suited to high-speed
flight.

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Delta Wings
Another option for aircraft which need to fly at high
speeds but also need to be able to turn tightly at all
speeds is the delta wing.

This has the advantage of high sweepback, but the
trailing edge is more suited to fitting effective flaps.

Because of the aerodynamics of delta wings, they are capable of
producing lift at much higher angles of attack than other wing
shapes, and so can be used on highly agile fighter aircraft.

Delta wings, which went out of fashion in the 1970s and 1980s,
are becoming more common. Many examples can be seen.
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Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of an aircrafts wing is an
important design feature, and is simply the ratio
of the wing span to its average chord.
This is not always simple to calculate if a wing shape
is complex, so another way of defining it is;



So if a wing has an area of 80 square metres and a
span of 20 metres the aspect ratio is (20
2
/80 = 5).


Aspect Ratio =
Span
2
Area
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Aspect Ratio - Examples
High performance sailplanes have aspect ratios in the region of
25 to 30, and fighters somewhere around 5 to 10.






High aspect ratio reduces the induced drag caused by air
flowing around the wing tips, and is ideal where long slow
flights are required.

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Monoplanes
Although there are still a few bi-planes around, most
aircraft are monoplanes. This provides a very stiff, strong
wing, without the drag penalty of the biplane arrangement.


Many light aircraft are braced
monoplanes, having a
diagonal bracing tie between
the wing and fuselage.

This allows a lighter structure
in the wing, because some of
the lift load is taken by the
brace. The extra drag caused
is acceptable at low speeds.
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Cantilever Monoplanes
The cantilever wing is used for aircraft of all speeds,
because it offers the lowest drag.

The wings have to be strong enough and stiff enough to
carry the whole weight of the aircraft, plus its aerodynamic
loads, without the need for external bracing.

They can be categorised as;

Low Wing: Grob 115E Tutor


Mid Wing: Gen Dyn F-16


High Wing: BAe Harrier GR9
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Wing Functions
Obviously the primary function of the wings on an aircraft
are to provide the lift required to enable it to fly.

However, what other functions do you think a wing is
expected to do?





As you can see, the wing can sometimes do lots of jobs
as well as providing lift!

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Flying Wings
So we can see that the wings are the main component of
an airframe. In fact, aircraft have been designed and built
which consist only of a pair of wings like the Northrop
Flying Wing.
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Flying Wing Compromise
A more common compromise can be seen in aircraft like
the Boeing B2 Spirit , F-117A Nighthawk and delta
aircraft like Concorde.

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Wing Loads & Forces
The wing is subject to a number of loads and forces, both whilst
the aircraft is on the ground and when it is in the air.

When an aircraft is moving through the air, the drag effect from the
air to its forward motion places a force on the wing.

Likewise, the act of the wing in generating lift also places forces on
the structure.

On the ground, the weight of the fuel, undercarriage, engines, wing
structure and in military aircraft weapon loads will all try and bend
the wing under the force of gravity.

The designer has to make the wings strong and stiff
enough to resist not only the forces of lift and drag, which
try to bend them upwards and backwards, but also the
loads that gravity will place on the structure.
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Methods of Construction
As you have already seen, different sizes and types of
aircraft can be constructed in different ways.

This applies to the mainplanes, or wings, as much as to
any other part.

Can you think of component parts of the structure that
make up a complete wing?

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Methods of Construction
Each wing is basically made up of two parts;

The internal structure, such as the spars and the ribs

The skin, which can be of fabric, metal or composites.

Although the distinction between metal and composite
wings may not be very apparent in modern fast jets or
large transport aircraft.

Wing construction itself comes in two forms. The modern
Stress Skin standard and the older Fabric Covered
wing.

However, both forms of construction rely on a similar
internal construction.
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Fabric Covered Wings
The main structural members, as for most aircraft wings,
are the front and rear spars, which are attached to each
other by a series of ribs.

Ribs give the wing its section, and transfer loads from the
covering into the spars.






Attached to the front spar is the leading edge section, in
this case made up of nose ribs and the leading edge itself.
Front Spar
Rear Spar
Ribs
Trailing
Edge
Leading Edge
Extra Nose
Ribs
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Fabric Covered Wings
The trailing edge section is similar, but of a different shape,
and contains the ailerons and flaps.

Although the fabric covering takes very little load, it does
strengthen and stiffen the structure a little, especially in torsion
(twisting).

The main structural ribs help to support the fabric to keep a
good aerodynamic section along the whole wing.

Along the leading edge, where the aerodynamic section curves
most, extra nose ribs are added to make sure this important part
of the wings is not upset by sagging of the covering fabric.
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Stressed Skin Wings
Air loads on the wing increase at the square
of the speed increase.

For instance, at 400 knots the air loads are four times as great
as the 200 knots achieved by the fastest of light aircraft.


Fabric covered wings cannot meet these higher loads, and so a
more rigid Stressed skin must be used.

Aluminium alloys are most often used for this, but composite
materials (carbon fibre) are now becoming more common.
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Stressed Skin Wings
Both aluminium alloy and composite provide a smoother finish
and more contour to the shape than a fabric covering, but if it
is very thin it does not give much extra strength.
If the skin is thicker, it can share the loads taken by the
structure underneath, which can then be made lighter.

Almost all aircraft have their structure made
entirely in metal, or a mixture of metal and
composite materials.

The main spars are still the main strength members, but a
large contribution to the strength is made by the skin.

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Stressed Skin Construction
In a Stressed Skin wing, the whole wing is normally of
metal construction, although the wing tip, ailerons and
leading edge may be of composites.

As the use of composites increase, more and more of the
airframe will be made this way.

To reduce weight the ribs (both metallic and composite)
may have large lightening holes, with flanged edges to
keep the required stiffness.

The skin may be fixed to the internal structure by rivets
and bolts, as shown on the following diagram, or by
bonding (gluing), using special adhesives.

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Stiffening Stringers
The stressed wing skin must be stiffened to prevent
buckling between the ribs.

A simple solution is to add stringers which would be
bonded or riveted to them, or integrally machined.

Stringers to stiffen
the skin
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Leading & Trailing Edges
There are also spaces in the leading and trailing edges i.e.
in front of and behind the spars.

What do you think could be put in these spaces?




The leading- and trailing-edge sections are used for
carrying electrical cables, control wires and other items
along the wing.
Other Equipment
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So Why Choose Stressed Skin?
Stressed skin wing construction is generally
chosen as it allows thin cantilever wings to be
produced.
These are strong enough to resist the tension,
compression and twisting loads caused by high
speeds.

Therefore a wing of stressed skin construction is
the ONLY option for an aircraft that travels at
medium to high speeds.
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Typical Spar Sections
Three typical spar sections are shown in pictures below.

A & B are made of sections fastened together, but some
modern aircraft would have the spar made from a single
piece of metal, as in C, making it stronger and lighter.

Of course, this means it has to be
made more accurately, as no
adjustments can be made during
assembly.

Also in examples A and B shown, the flanges could be
made as part of the skin, if the skin is machined from a
thicker material.

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High-Speed Flight Spars
However, for high-speed flight, a thin wing is needed, but
it may not be possible to get a deep enough spar for the
wing to cope with the stresses placed upon it.






To make the wing strong enough, more than one spar will
be used. Using two spars is quite usual on many aircraft
and is referred to as a multi-spar wing.
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Multi-Spar Wing Example
Supersonic aircraft, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon,
require extremely thin wings, and hence use a multi-spar
layout
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Wing Assembly
The whole volume is sealed using special compounds to
prevent leakage, and may be divided up into several large
tanks, so that the fuel may be moved around as required
to balance the aircraft or reduce loads in flight.





Front
Spar
Centre Spar
Ribs
Stringers
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Airbus A320 Wing Sub-Assemblies
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Machined Skin
As an alternative to making stressed skins by fastening
stringers to the skin (fabricated), the skin, stringers and
spar flanges can all be machined from a single piece of
alloy, called a billet.

This billet may be many metres long, since it is possible
to make the skin for one wing in a single piece.

The billet is much thicker and heavier then the final
machined skin.

During the manufacture of the machined skin, up to 90%
of the billet will be removed during machining!

Although this is more expensive, in both material and
machining cost, the final result is a lighter and stronger
skin than a fabricated one.
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Advantages of Machined Skin
The advantages of using Machined Skin in an airframe
design are;

Riveting is no longer required, so a smoother surface can be
achieved providing a better aerodynamic wing.

The resultant wing has a lighter structure and a more even
loading than an equivalent fabricated wing.

Computer-controlled machining means mistakes or faults are
less likely, and more easily detected.

Allows for easy inspection during manufacture and in service.

Little or no maintenance is required.

Fuel spaces are easily sealed.
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Disadvantages of Machined Skin
However, there are some disadvantages to
utilising Machined Skin in airframes

The associated high cost of manufacturing
particularly the tooling set-up costs

Battle damage repair in combat aircraft with
machined skin wings can be more difficult.

Careful design is needed in order to maintain
fail safety by limiting spreading of fatigue
cracking.
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Undercarriage Attachment
Landing Gear
Attachment Points
False Spar
Rear Spar
Additional Ribs
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Undercarriage Attachment
Landing Gear
Attachment Points
False Spar
Rear Spar
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Tailplane
Tailplanes on light aircraft
may be built in a similar
way to a fabric-covered
wing.

Stressed-skin tailplanes are
usually similar in
construction to stressed-
skin wings, but they are
obviously smaller and
usually have a different
section, because they are
not required to produce lift
in normal flight.

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The Fin
The picture on the right
shows how the fin on a
Harrier is constructed.

As you can see, the
construction of the fin is
similar to that of the
tailplane.

The fin consists of ribs,
spars and skin panels.

Ribs
Spars
Stressed
skin
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Tailplane & Fin Configurations
Designers have tried many
different configurations of
Tailplane & Fin over the
years.

On the right is the Tailplane
& Fin of a Lockheed Super
Constellation.

As you can see, instead of
a large rudder, it has 3
smaller units.

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Tailplane & Fin Configurations
On large aircraft, the fin may
also contain fuel.

Not only does this increase the
fuel capacity, but it also allows
for trimming of the aircraft by
transfer of weight rather than
by deflecting aerodynamic
control surface, and so
reduces drag.



Another configuration, is the T tail such as the VC-10.

This is where the tailplane is mounted on top of the fin

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Foreplanes
Foreplanes are of similar construction to tailplanes,
but are generally smaller in size.

Because of their smaller size, foreplanes lend themselves to being
made of composite materials

They are almost always all-flying, that is, the entire foreplane
moves to provide the control movements.

Typhoon foreplane At Rest Typhoon foreplane At Work
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Conclusions
As has been seen, the wing is not only the most important
part of the airframe, but it is also one of the most complex.

As technology advances, so the designers of wings will
create evermore efficient wings.

Even so, the underlying structure of the wing has not changed
in many years. Methods of constructing the wing, and the
materials it is made from are the factors that are changing
most.

Any Questions ?
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Questions
Here are some questions for you!

1. Name 2 parts of a wing?

2. What is an alternative to making a stressed skin by
fastening stringers to the skin?

3. If an aircraft increases its airspeed from 200 knots to
600 knots, how much higher will the air loads on the
wing be?