|
Cruise (aeronautics)
Cruise is the phase of aircraft flight from when the aircraft levels off after a climb until it begins to descend for landing. Cruising usually comprises the majority of a flight, and may include small changes in heading (direction of flight), airspeed, and altitude. Airliner cruise Commercial or passenger aircraft are usually designed for optimum performance around their cruise speed ( VC) and cruise altitude. Factors affecting optimum cruise speed and altitude include payload, center of gravity, air temperature, and humidity. Cruise altitude is usually where the higher ground speed is balanced against the decrease in engine thrust and efficiency at higher altitudes. Common narrowbodies like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737NG cruise at , while modern widebodies like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 cruise at . The typical cruising altitude for commercial airliners is . The speed which covers the greatest distance for a given amount of fuel is known as the maximum range spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qantas Boeing 747-400 VH-OJU Over Starbeyevo Kustov
Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, it is the only airline in the world that flies to all Seven Continents, seven continents, with it operating flights to Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America and South America from its hubs in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane. It also flies to over 60 domestic destinations across Australia. Qantas is List of airlines by foundation date, the world's third-oldest airline by foundation date and the oldest airline in the English-speaking world — being founded in November 1920. ''Qantas'' is an Acronym and initialism, acronym of the airline's original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, as it originally served Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is popularly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drag Curve
The drag curve or drag polar is the relationship between the drag on an aircraft and other variables, such as lift, the coefficient of lift, angle-of-attack or speed. It may be described by an equation or displayed as a graph (sometimes called a "polar plot"). Drag may be expressed as actual drag or the coefficient of drag. Drag curves are closely related to other curves which do not show drag, such as the power required/speed curve, or the sink rate/speed curve. The drag curve The significant aerodynamic properties of aircraft wings are summarised by two dimensionless quantities, the lift and drag coefficients and . Like other such aerodynamic quantities, they are functions only of the angle of attack , the Reynolds number and the Mach number . and can be plotted against , or can be plotted against each other. The lift and the drag forces, and , are scaled by the same factor to get and , so = . and are at right angles, with parallel to the free stream velo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visual Flight Rules
In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) is a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minima, i.e., in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), as specified in the rules of the relevant aviation authority. The pilot must be able to operate the aircraft with visual reference to the ground, and by visually avoiding obstructions and other aircraft. If the weather is less than VMC, pilots are required to use instrument flight rules, and operation of the aircraft will be primarily through referencing the instruments rather than visual reference. In a control zone, a VFR flight may obtain a clearance from air traffic control to operate as Special VFR. Requirements VFR requires a pilot to be able to see outside the cockpit to control the aircraft's altitude, navigate, and avoid obstacles and other aircra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landing
Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or " splashdown" as well. A normal aircraft flight would include several parts of flight including taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing. Aircraft Aircraft usually land at an airport on a firm runway or helicopter landing pad, generally constructed of asphalt concrete, concrete, gravel or grass. Aircraft equipped with pontoons ( floatplane) or with a boat hull-shaped fuselage (a flying boat) are able to land on water. Aircraft also sometimes use skis to land on snow or ice. To land, the airspeed and the rate of descent are reduced such that the object descends at a low enough rate to allow for a gentle touch down. Landing is accomplished by slowing down and descending to the runway. This speed reduction is accomplished by r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takeoff
Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a transition from moving along the ground on a runway. For balloon (aircraft), balloons, helicopters and some specialized fixed-wing aircraft (VTOL aircraft such as the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, Harrier and the Bell Boeing V22 Osprey), no runway is needed. Horizontal Power settings For light aircraft, usually full power is used during takeoff. Large transport category (airliner) aircraft may use a flex temp, reduced power for takeoff, where less than full power is applied in order to prolong engine life, reduce maintenance costs and reduce noise emissions. In some emergency cases, the power used can then be increased to increase the aircraft's performance. Before takeoff, the engines, particularly piston engines, are routinely run up at high po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supercruise
Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of a supersonic aircraft without using afterburner. Many supersonic military aircraft are not capable of supercruise and can maintain Mach 1+ flight only in short bursts with afterburners. Aircraft such as the SR-71 Blackbird are designed to cruise at supersonic speed with afterburners enabled. Some fighter jets are capable of supercruise but only at high altitudes and in a clean configuration, so the term may imply "a significant increase in effective combat speed with a full weapons load over existing types". One of the pre-eminent military examples of supercruise is the F-22 Raptor, for which supercruise was defined as "the ability to cruise at speeds of one and a half times the speed of sound or greater without the use of afterburner for extended periods in combat configuration." One of the best-known examples of an aircraft capable of supercruise, and the only notable non-military example, was the Concorde. Due to its long s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loiter (aeronautics)
In aeronautics and aviation, loiter is the phase of flight consisting of flying over some small region. In general aviation, the loiter phase generally occurs at the end of the flight, when the plane is waiting for clearance to land. In military flights, such as aerial reconnaissance or ground-attack aircraft, the loiter phase is the time that the aircraft has over a target. Cruise is the time period the aircraft travels to the target and returns after the loiter. In astronautics, the loiter phase of spacecraft used for human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ... may be as long as six months, as is the case for Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spacecraft which remain docked while expedition crewmembers reside aboard the International Space Station. Endurance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lift-to-drag Ratio
In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the Lift (force), lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air. It describes the aerodynamic efficiency under given flight conditions. The L/D ratio for any given body will vary according to these flight conditions. For an aerofoil wing or powered aircraft, the L/D is specified when in straight and level flight. For a glider it determines the Lift-to-drag ratio#Glide ratio, glide ratio, of distance travelled against loss of height. The term is calculated for any particular airspeed by measuring the lift generated, then dividing by the drag at that speed. These vary with speed, so the results are typically plotted on a 2-dimensional graph. In almost all cases the graph forms a U-shape, due to the two main components of drag. The L/D may be calculated using computational fluid dynamics or computer simulation. It is measured empirically by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Range (aeronautics)
The maximal total range is the maximum distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing. Powered aircraft range is limited by the aviation fuel energy storage capacity (chemical or electrical) considering both weight and volume limits. Unpowered aircraft range depends on factors such as cross-country speed and environmental conditions. The range can be seen as the cross-country ground speed multiplied by the maximum time in the air. The fuel time limit for powered aircraft is fixed by the available fuel (considering reserve fuel requirements) and rate of consumption. Some aircraft can gain energy while airborne through the environment (e.g. collecting solar energy or through rising air currents from mechanical or thermal lifting) or from in-flight refueling. These aircraft could theoretically have an infinite range. Ferry range means the maximum range that an aircraft engaged in ferry flying can achieve. This usually means maximum fuel load, optionally with extra fuel tan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fuel Economy In Aircraft
The fuel economy in aircraft is the measure of the energy efficiency in transport, transport energy efficiency of aircraft. Fuel efficiency is increased with better aerodynamics and by reducing weight, and with improved engine brake-specific fuel consumption and propulsive efficiency or thrust-specific fuel consumption. Endurance (aeronautics), Endurance and Range (aeronautics), range can be maximized with the optimum airspeed, and economy is better at optimum altitudes, usually higher. An airline efficiency depends on its fleet fuel burn, airline seating, seating density, air cargo and passenger load factor, while operational procedures like aircraft maintenance, maintenance and Airway (aviation), routing can save fuel. Average fuel burn of new aircraft fell 45% from 1968 to 2014, a compounded annual reduction 1.3% with a variable reduction rate. In 2018, CO₂ emissions totalled 747 million tonnes for passenger transport, for 8.5 trillion revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Step Climb
A step climb in aviation is a series of altitude gains that improve fuel economy by moving into thinner air as an aircraft becomes lighter and becomes capable of flying in the thinner air at a higher altitude. Description Since the early days of jet aircraft and commercial travel, the technique of gradually climbing in cruise altitude as fuel burns off and the aircraft becomes lighter has been widely used by pilots. The altitude that provides the most fuel-efficient cruise (at the desired speed) at the start of a long flight, when the aircraft is fully loaded with fuel, is not the same as the altitude that provides the best efficiency at the end of the flight when most of the fuel aboard has been burned. This latter altitude is usually significantly higher than the former. By climbing gradually throughout the cruise phase of a flight, pilots can make the most economical use of their fuel. Originally, a simple ''cruise climb'' was used by pilots. This amounted to a simple, continu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Traffic Control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC is to prevent collisions, organise and expedite the flow of traffic in the air, and provide information and other support for pilots. Personnel of air traffic control monitor aircraft location in their assigned airspace by radar and communicate with the pilots by radio. To prevent collisions, ATC enforces Separation (air traffic control), traffic separation rules, which ensure each aircraft maintains a minimum amount of 'empty space' around it at all times. It is also common for ATC to provide services to all General aviation, private, Military aviation, military, and commercial aircraft operating within its airspace; not just civilian aircraft. Depending on the type of flight and the class of airspace, AT ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
