Aeronautical Engineering

What is a patent?

What was the name of the first manned aircraft to fly?

What are ailerons? Who developed them? How were planes turmed before ailerons were developed?

What was the first turbojet aircraft to fly?

Name the British fighter jet to enter service during WWII.

The F-111 was the first production jet to use what technology? Why was this technology used?

What do STOL and VTOL stand for?

What aerodynamic feature did the Saab Viggen use to gain STOL capabilities?

What makes the Harrier such an important jet?

What material family is made extensive use of in the Eurofighter Typhoon

Why was the de Havilland Comet such an important passenger aircraft?

What aircraft, made by Boeing, set them up for a prosperous future with passenger jets?

The de Havilland Comet, Tupovlev Tul04 and Boeing 707 are all early commercial jets. Compare their design similarities and differences.

What makes the Boeing 747 such an important plane in the development of passenger jets?

The Antonov An124 is a large cargo plane, how does its wing placement differ from the large Airbus A380?

The Concorde was first and only commercial supersonic airliner to enter regular service. Outline some of the key design differences between the Concorde and a regular commercial jet airliner.

Explain the term, fuselage.

What is the vertical stabiliser?

Explain in terms of moments, why the force from the tail plane must usually have a downward direction.

Describe what the movements of pitch, roll and yaw mean. Outline which control surfaces are used to control these movements.

Explain with reference to the flow turning theory, how an aerofoil creates lit.

A 650 kg glider is descending at an angle of 15 at constant velocity. Determine the mass of the pilot if the glider experiences a drag force of 1900 N.

What will be the lift to drag ratio of a 3 tonne aircraft that has a glide angle of 9° and is descending at constant velocity? What will be the drag force?

A small 1.3 tonne plane is climbing at an angle of 15° at constant velocity. Determine the drag force on the plane if the thrust is currently 5 KN.

The aircraft in increases the thrust to 7 kN. If all other parameters stay the same, determine the acceleration of the plane along the 15° flight path.

What is meant by the term, stalling?

Explain what is the Venturi effect is?

Find the bending moment at the wing root and the bending stress in the lower surface if the wing is 5 m long, has lift UDL of 2 kN/m and I = 2.2x 10° mm* and y= 20 mm.

How does a turbofan differ from a turbojet? Explain why turbofan engines are more common on commercial airliners now.

Explain the operation of an airspeed indicator and an altimeter.

What properties of carbon fibre make it desirable in aircraft construction?

Explain how composite materials such as CFRP can be made to have preferred directional properties.

What is a metal matrix composite?

Why do aircraft always have moisture on them?

Explain pit or crevice corrosion.

Explain what stress corrosion cracking is.

Research Exercise - flight mechanics and aeronautical theories apply equally to helicopters. Explain how a helicopter achieves flight compared to a fixed wing aircraft. Additionally look at some of the variations in helicopter designs and explain why some use two rotors in lieu of one. Furthermore explain why most helicopters require a tail rotor, and explain how some (such as the NoTAR system) have replaced the tail rotor.

Helicopters when flying forward need to be able to alter the angle of attack of the advancing rotor blade as opposed to the retreating rotor blade. Why must they do this? Explain your answer in terms of how lift is generated in terms of speed and angle of attack.