Spaatz Aerospace - Module 1

What gives you the ability to see objects that are far away?

Elevation

Who built the first devices that enabled us to fly?

The Chinese

Which three scientists performed scientific studies of the atmosphere, learning that the atmosphere is a fluid and that atmospheric pressure decreases the higher you climb?

Torricelli, Von Guericke, and Pascal

Which Jesuit priest is credited with inventing the hot air balloon?

Laurenco de Gusmao

Who were the first people to achieve manned flight in a hot air balloon?

Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier

Who were the first men to fly in a lighter-than-air craft?

Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes

Who was the first woman to make a ballooning career, and also the first woman to be killed in a ballooning accident?

Madeleine Sophie Blanchard

Who organized the Balloon Signal Service, which was the first use of balloons by the United States military?

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe

Who made the dirigible that is generally credited as being the first successful one in the world?

Henri Giffard

What was the first successful rigid dirigible?

LZ-1

Who has been called the "Father of Modern Aviation?"

Otto Lilienthal

What technique was instrumental in the Wright Brother's success?

The wing-warping technique

Who was piloting the Wight Flyer on its first successful flight?

Orville Wright

When did the Wright Flyer have its first successful flight?

December 17, 1903

According to legend, who built two sets of wings so he and his son could escape imprisonment?

Daedalus

Who invented gunpowder?

The Chinese

Who may have used man-carrying kites to spy on their enemies?

The Chinese

Who developed the first known principles of flight?

Leonardo da Vinci

Who invented the hot air balloon?

Laurenco de Gusmao

Who built the hot air balloon that had the first human passengers?

The Montgolfier Brothers

What was an important improvement over the balloon because it could be steered?

The dirigible

What are the three basic problems of flight?

Developing necessary lift, sustaining that lift, and controlling the aircraft once it is flying

Who wrote "The whole problem is confined with these limits; namely, to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air?

George Caley

Wings having a front and a rear spar, with connecting ribs, were developed by who?

John Stringfellow

What was the first airplane to successfully fly after being launched from a catapult?

Samuel Pierpont Langley's aircraft Aerodrome

Who solved the three basic problems of flight when their Flyer flew on December 17, 1903?

The Wright brothers

What is the science and art of flight through the atmosphere?

Aeronautics

What is the science relating to the energy of gases in motion?

Aerodynamics

The atmosphere is a mixture of what?

Several gases

What is the measure of the energy within a gas?

Temperature

What is essentially how many molecules are squeezed into a given volume?

Density

What is defined as a fluid's resistance to flow?

Viscosity

What phenomenon occurs when an object is placed in the path of moving air?

Viscous drag

What is the smooth flow pattern of air around an object?

Laminar flow

What part of an airfoil meets relative wind first?

The leading edge

What is designed specifically to cause a dynamic reaction from the air through which it moves?

An airfoil

Early airfoils were similar to what?

The wings of birds

What is the imaginary line running from the leading edge to the trailing edge of an airfoil?

The chord

The angle created by the pilot during takeoff is known as what?

The angle of attack

Who was given credit for developing the laws that explain how a wing lifts?

Daniel Bernoulli

What is Bernoulli's principle?

"As a fluid's speed increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases"

What are the four forces of flight?

Lift, drag, thrust, and weight

What is a graphic mathematical illustration showing both direction and magnitude?

A vector

What causes induced lift?

Changing the camber, or curvature, of the airfoil shape of the wing

Today, most airplanes are built of what?

Aluminum alloys

What is the force that propels the aircraft forward?

Thrust

What is the force that opposes all motion through the atmosphere and is parallel to the direction of the relative wind?

Drag

Drag is almost always what to aircraft performance?

Detrimental

What is it called when air flows across a shock wave it undergoes a change in temperature, pressure, and velocity?

Wave drag

What is the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in air?

Mach number

What area determines the airfoil's thickness and thus its lift?

The camber

What is the rear junction where the upper and lower parts of the airfoil meet?

The trailing edge

What occurs when lift is destroyed and the force of weight takes over?

A stall

Each airplane has a total weight limitation called what?

Maximum gross weight

If a pilot subtracts the empty weight from the maximum gross weight the result is how many pounds can be loaded into the airplane; this is called what?

Useful load

What part of a the conventional airplane is the basic structure to which all the other parts are attached?

The fuselage

What axis runs from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail in a single-engine airplane?

The longitudinal axis

What axis runs from one wingtip through the fuselage and exits the other wingtip?

The lateral axis

What axis passes vertically through the meeting point of the longitudinal and lateral axes?

The vertical axis

What is motion around the longitudinal axis called?

Roll

What is motion around the lateral axis called?

Pitch

What is motion around the vertical axis called?

Yaw

What engines power the conventional vehicles used for transportation, work, and pleasure?

Reciprocating engines

What are the strokes of a reciprocating engine?

Intake, compression, ignition and power, and exhaust

What is the reciprocating engine also known as?

The internal-combustion engine

What is the action end of an aircraft's reciprocating engine?

The propeller

What are attached to the trailing edge of the wing?

Flaps

What are protrusions from the leading edge of a wing?

Slats

What system for an aircraft engine includes everything that involves delivery of fuel to the engine?

Fuel systems

What can be located anywhere in the aircraft?

Fuel tanks

What lead from each fuel tank to distribute the fuel throughout the aircraft?

Fuel lines

Instruments are classified by their use fall into what two major groups?

Performance and control

Flaps are often used for both what?

Takeoffs and landings

Air is accelerated and compressed by stator and rotor blades, then mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustion section, resulting in high-velocity gas or thrust?

Turbojet engine

Aircraft propellers turned by a turbine?

Turboprop engine

Crankshaft and pistons working together to convert straight-line motion to rotary motion in order to turn an aircraft propeller?

Reciprocating engine

Have to be traveling through the air very fast in order to work?

Ramjet/scramjet engine

Takes in air, accelerates it, pushes it out the exhaust nozzle to produce thrust that pushes the aircraft forward?

Turbine engine

Combines the air-moving efficiency of the turbofan engine with the thrusting efficiency of a propeller?

Propfan system

Produce greater thrust and are more fuel efficient than standard turbojet engines?

Turbofan engine

What uses internal braces to help the skin carry the stresses generated in flight?

Semimonocoque

What utilizes longerons and struts welded together at various angles to form its basic shape?

Truss

Its covering provides the required strength to resist the stresses of flight is an example of what?

Monocoque

What system is based on Pascal's law of pressure applied to a liquid in a closed container?

A Hydraulic system

Most electrical devices and controls on an aircraft receive their energy from what?

The generator and battery system

What measures altitude and most often is an aneroid barometer?

Altimeter

What is a heavy roto wheel mounted so it is free to rotate?

Gyroscope

What is a type of compass which makes use of a gyroscopic device and is affected by very little turbulence?

Heading indicator

What is the most basic and important navigational instrument?

Magnetic compass

What measures how fast the engine's crankshaft is turning?

Tachometer

What measures the passage of time?

Clock

What is a gyroscope instrument which provides a horizon to show relationship to pitch and bank?

Attitude indicator

What measures the rate of climb or descent?

Vertical velocity indicator

What is a two-in-one instrument revealing direction, rate, and quality of turn?

Turn-and-slip indicator

What informs the pilot of his or her speed through the air by use of a pitot tube?

Airspeed indicator