Microaeronautics is a term coined by Parnell
Schoenkey of the "Kirkwood Thermaleers". He was an engineer with
the then McDonnell Aircraft Company in Saint Louis, Missouri. A
thoughtful man and well-known competitor and designer, he used the
term back in the 1950's before "micro" was cool.
I borrowed the word because it is just right.
This little selection of articles is about a few aspects of the
kind of aeronautics that are associated with small airplanes, or
"model airplanes" as has been a popular term over the years.
With the increased government interest in small,
autonomous aircraft that can collect information,the term "model
airplane" is no longer a universal descriptor. These aircraft are
called "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" (UAV) in some circles. You can
search for UAV on the web and get all kinds of hits.
In 1998 I consulted on the design of a roughly
0.7 meter span UAV being built by a major US aerospace contractor.
An example of this new brand of microaeronautics.
The selection of articles here and their tone is
fairly technical, but certainly not at the aeronautical engineering
level. If your interests lie in the analytical and quantitative, or
if you like to understand the physics of microaeronautics, they may
be of interest.
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The
Atmosphere An article on the atmosphere with
emphasis on properties that affect the flight of small aircraft.
Requires a modest amount of physics and is supported by a Windows
computer program describe below:
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Atmosphere
Properties PC Program A windows program companion
to the article above. This link is to the user's manual and a
download link
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Mach
Number, Records, and Propellers The story of the
role of Mach Number in the American jet speed record set in the
years after WWII in extreme heat, and how to tell if your model
propeller is likely to have Mach Number problems.
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Scale
Airplanes and Scale Speed Why you can't have a
truly scale airplane. The right way to understand scaling and what
factors can be scaled.
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Gyroscopic
Propeller Effects Measurements of many propeller
weights and rotary inertia. How this affects flight, in particular
for control line aircraft. Gyroscopic torques, only this time with
real measured data
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Line
Drag/Offset program for Windows Download a program
that runs under Windows95/98 or Windows NT. Now modified to accept
1, 2, or n line models with full atmospheric property control.
Computes line rake, power required and many other parameters
measured data
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Propeller
A longish set of notes covering many aspects of
model aircraft propellers from the viewpoint of aircraft
engineering propeller experience. Many terms are defined and the
notion of 'slip' as a measure of efficiency is shown to be fatuous.
A table of flight helix pitch for many control line events and
records is supplied.
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Cheap Aero
Books A collection of technical books on
aerodynamics and fluid mechanics of interest to primarily to
engineers and physicists. These fine books are republished by Dover
in paperback and offer the chance to get some classics worth the
bucks.
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How
Thick is the Boundary Layer? A fundamental
property of model aircraft airflow is a boundary layer that is, in
proportion, substantially thicker than that of full size aircraft
and far more likely to separate. How thick is it and how good must
the finish be to keep drag down?
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Constants and Unit Conversion
A Unit conversions from 'English' i.e. the
US Cusotmary System, to SI and Sea Level Standard Atmosphere
constants from NASA standards documents
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