DIFFERENT
SHAPES OF AIRCRAFT WINGS
By Arnab Nath, Ashutosh T, Amartya Anand Thigale
Many
different sorts of wings are used in aircraft depending on their performance,
aerodynamic characteristics, and manufacturing cost. The main three types of
wing shapes have been discussed below.
Rectangular
Wing:
A Rectangular Wing is the easiest as well
as the cheapest wing to manufacture. It is the most basic type of wing and is
Easier to design with less aeronautical expertise required to achieve good
handling.
Added to this, it has more benign stalling
characteristics. The stall will generally start at the wing root and extend to
the tips. This makes tip stalls and inadvertent spins less likely.
The Piper
PA 38 is a rectangular winged aircraft. The other planes which have rectangular
wings are Antonov An-2, Pilatus Turbo Porter, Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, etc.
Tapered
Wing:
A tapered wing is a modification of the
rectangular wing where the chord is varied across the span to
approximate the elliptical lift distribution. It offers a compromise between
manufacturability and efficiency. It is efficiency is not as high as elliptical
wings.
One
reason to taper a wing is to adjust the load along the wing’s span. A tapered
wing reduces tip loading and thus results in a lighter wing structure. The
primary disadvantage of a tapered wing is that it is more difficult to build.
The
USAAF aircraft P-51 Mustang used the tapered wing. Nowadays, swept and tapered
combination is used in many aircraft wings as it has more aerodynamic
characteristics and manufacturing is economical.
Elliptical
Wing:
The leading and trailing edges each approximate two segments
of an ellipse in elliptical wing. The elliptical wing has good lift
distribution due to its elliptical spanwise and also induce the lowest drag.
Elliptical-lift
distribution is obtained by shaping the wing so that the amount of air diverted
tapers in an elliptical fashion. A linearly tapered wing loses only 7 percent
of the lift of an elliptic wing. The elliptical wing has good lift distribution
due to its elliptical spanwise and also induces the lowest drag. But the
manufacturing of the elliptical wing is difficult due to its shape.
It
was used in Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain as for battle
aircrafts ammunition and guns need to be installed g with the gears. For this purpose,
a thin wing is better suited, and hence elliptical wing provides the thinnest
wing possible because of its shape.
Aircraft like Seversky P-35 uses a
semi-elliptical wing that has a leading and trailing edge elliptical.
