Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
That sounds fair enough. Now, if you want to do some sums and figure out loads, it gets a tad more involved. Fortunately, pilots don't need to do that, we have aerodynamicists for that sort of heavy stuff.
NASA makes it easy for ordinary folks "to do some sums and figure out loads."
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/foil3.html
"
FoilSim Student JS is the latest (April 2019) version of the FoilSim family of interactive simulations. The different versions of FoilSim require different levels of knowledge of aerodynamics.... This web page contains the on-line student version of the FoilSim Student JS program."
Press some buttons to play around:
- select a shape - make up an aerofoil setion with a couple of clicks
- choose an angle of attack (you can vary camber on your simple aerofoil section as well)
- see the upper and lower surface pressures
Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
And we have a few of those good folk on PPRuNe to keep the rest of us on the straight and narrow paths of airflow.
It has been a long while since I've been a working aerodynamicist - but two of my current aerobatic students are aeronautical/aerospace engineers and one of them was talking Kutta etc to me today.