Why do they do that....
All,
Something on the technical front that has been bothering me for a while now. I'm currently studying for a degree in Aero Eng, but have never got round to asking one of my departments "academics"!
Why do commercial jetliners cruise with a positive fusulage incidence?? It's easy to appreciate that the wings of the aircraft have to be positioned at 3 degrees or so in the cruise, but why does the fusulage also sit at that angle to the flow. In doing so, the effective frontal area of the aircraft is increased and, thus, the drag!!! Surely it would be of benefit in todays efficincy driven industry to mount the wings to the fusulage at cruise incidence, thus having the fusulage pointing in the direction of travel through the cruise. Am I missing something big here??
Cheers for reading,
Cuban