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Why do airplane wings have bumps?
The aircraft manufacturer revealed some of its research in a patent filing titled “Dynamic bumps for drag reduction at transonic-supersonic speeds.” The idea is to use a grid of oscillating jets to weaken the shock waves produced when air passes over a swept wing at high speed, especially as planes reach Mach 0.8 .
What are the pointy things on airplane wings?
These things, called winglets, look pretty funny if you’re not used to seeing them, but airlines are installing them like they’re going out of style. Why? Yup, you guessed it – they save fuel. The real problem here is called a wingtip vortex.
What is the hump on the top of a 737?
The bump on the top of some commercial airliners is, in fact, a radome. This blended word meshes together the two things that identify the lump – radar and dome. In the case of the small radome on top of the aircraft, this houses equipment that provides a specific service – inflight WiFi.
Why do flight attendants touch the overhead compartment so often?
Flight attendants don’t just touch the ceiling for fun when they walk; the bottom of the overhead compartment has a scalloped area that gives better grip when walking down a moving airplane. Next time you need to get up, reach to the ceiling for balance. This is why it’s always so cold on airplanes.
What is a wing root fairing?
Wing root. Wing roots are often faired to reduce interference drag between the wing and the fuselage. On top and below the wing it consists of small rounded edge to reduce the surface and such friction drag.
How wings are attached to planes?
The main wing is attached to the center fuselage with wing box. The wings are attached to the main fuselage body using a lug. The lug attachment helps to attach the wing with the fuselage. The attachment is done by series of pinned lug between wing side of wing box and fuselage.
What are the Little Bends on the end of an airplane wing are for?
These little vertical winglets—like what you might see on either end of the spoiler for a racecar—aren’t just some sort of design flourish. They actually help improve the efficiency of the wing, and the whole plane.
Why are there winglets on the end of a plane?
When the air tries to shortcut like this, it creates a vortex which increases drag on the whole plane, but those winglets help to mitigate that, if not stop it entirely. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Why does air travel around the tip of a wing?
That’s all well and good across most of the wing, but at the tips, the high pressure air wants to zip around the wing’s tip to get to the low pressure part—much in the same way pressure differences cause winds on the ground.
How are airplane wings used to create lift?
As Real Engineering explains in this tight little video on the subject, airplane wings create lift by creating pockets of high pressure air under their wings, with lower pressure above.