“I am going to do a full time aeronautical engineering course(undergrdt) so can you suggest any good aeronautics books.”

Good luck to you… when I started my course I was advised to read “Aircraft Flight” By R Barnard and D Philpott… its got the basics of pretty much everything to do with how aircraft fly…. you will however get along on the course just fine without it… as I discovered when I got there very few people actually bothered to read it!

As for text books… your lecturers will advise you which to buy… lecturers sometimes use textbook problems as tutorial questions… however be warned… some lecturers will have friends who have written the texbook… and they’ll be trying to sell them for them (Fell for that one once… worst £40 I ever spent!)… Your university library will have copies of all the text books you need… mine did… its just a bit hard to get a copy around exam and coursework times!

Where are you studying?? I graduated in 2005 from Loughborough… my knowledge of books is out of date as well… Another warning… Aero Eng has high drop out rate… my course started with 120 people… and finished with around 70 3 years later!!

Must be 80×80… A380 only just fits into that… wingspan is around 80m. Sorry!

I dont really have anything…. although I supppose I have gained one thing in recent years…. I HAVE to hold my girlfriends hand opn takeoff and landing… bless her… she doesnt like flying! I have to be careful not to mention that the tube shes flying in was built by the lowest bidder!

The majority of civil aircraft wings have 2 main spars, one towards the front, and another towards the rear (in the outboard of the wing). Inboard, there is usually another spar which travels towards the tip at the rear of the wing which meets the rear main spar somewhere in the middle of the wing (but closer to the fuselage than the tip), this spar is used to hang the flap mechanisms and other associated things like spoilers etc. Now, the engine mounting will be attached somewhere near where the rear main spar and the spar at the rear of the inboard section of the wing meet. This is a structural strong point so on aircraft with wings mounted under the wing, the landing gear is mounted here.

For tail mounter engine aircraft, the same spars will exist in a simlar layout, the point where the rear main spar and the rear spar on the inboard section is still a structural strong point so the landing gear will be mounted there.

Well… it would have been worth it if the USAF would have kept with the original numbers it planned to buy.

The way aircraft costs are calculated involves the research and design cost, the cost of making the aircraft, the cost of engines (design and make) and the cost of avionics etc. Now, aircraft aren’t cheap to design, companies may have to put up vast sums of money to design an aircraft. This money has to be gotten back somehow… aircraft companies dont make aircraft because they like making aircraft, they make aircraft to make a profit. To get this profit, the cost per aircraft is worked out… and it is dependent on the number of aircraft sold. If this number is small… the price is high. The USAF could pick up F-22’s at the same price an F-5 type aircraft if it wanted to… the problem is… it would own thousands of them!

Landing gear – This is located where it is on low wing, wing mounted engine type aircraft because the landing gear has to be mounted on something solid, with plenty of strong structural members. On civil airliners, the strongest part of a wing is the point where the main spars meet with the structure for mounting the engines. Here, there will be some hefty structure… so, landing gear is mounted there.

There are also guidelines as to where landing gear should be mounted. Aircraft can not have landing gear with too narrow track, as the aircraft would tip over on turns on the ground. Also, landing gear has to be placed somewhere where the angle between the ground under the centre of the main landing gear wheel (rear wheel if on a bogey) and the swept up rear fuselage is 15 degrees. The ideal point for these criteria to be met is somewhere under the wings.

Another factor is centre of gravity, the main wheels need to be behind the CoG to ensure the aircraft doesnt tip back on its tail. And, main landing gear units typicallty take 85% of the weight of the aircraft, so it makes sense to have them under the wings as then, you dont need extra structure to pass the weight to the landing gear… as the spars are already doing that for you!

Also… air doesnt like being turned. Designers have a nightmare designing “S” ducts as you have to get it perfectly right for the flying conditions you will encounter. In an “S” duct, air may separate from one side of an intake and cause turbulence within the intake… which is bad news for the engine!!

The straight through arrangement on the DC-10 is a much easier, simpler way of designing a place for the third engine.

Downfalls of this position of engine are that engineers need a cherry picker to carry out maintenance, there was that turbine failure which slashed all 3 of the hydraulic lines in a DC-10. Its also harder for structural engineers as you have to get the fin spars through the engine.

One good point of having an “S” ducted, tail engine as in the TriStar is that the fan noise of this third engine can be effectively controlled. The fan is buried in the fuselage and noise would have a hard time escaping from the front end of the “S” duct, however… it would still come from the rear of the bypass duct!

Gee……. I wonder if I should try this…….. :rolleyes: