~ Aviation Management ~

Aviation 101 - ERAU MOOC

Basic airplane components; fuselage, wings, empennage, landing gear, powerplant

Flight controls; 

3 primary flight controls; ailerons, elevator, rudder

ailerons; located on the back end of the wings towards the tiptoe control the roll or bank

elevator; attached to the back end of the horizontal stabilizer to control the pitch to climb or descend

rudder; attached to the back end of the vertical stabilizer to create yaw

2 secondary flight controls; flaps, trim

Powerplant and Propeller;

reciprocating engines with cylinders; fuel and air are mixed, compressed, and ignited. As it ignites, the piston moves inward. When these pistons move in and out, the crankshaft that they are connected to begins to rotate. As it begins to rotate, it is connected to the propeller and it also begins to rotate. This creates a four stroke cycle; intake, compression, power, exhaust. 

throttle controls-amount of fuel and air that go into the cylinders

mixture controls-how much fuel is mixed with the air

Major components of ignition system; magnetos, spark plugs, wires, and ignition switch.

As combustion is occurring in the cylinder, the pistons are rotating the crankshaft, directly driving the propeller. Equal thrust is created along the propeller blade from being twisted.

Landing gear: provides ground support to airplane for taxi, takeoff, and landing

With a tricycle landing gear system, when the pilot pushes the rudder petals, the nose wheel rotates alowing the pilot to steer. Differential breaking can be used on a plane with a tricycle system for sharper turns. 

Landing gear category classifications: 

fixed - where the landing gear is permanently extended

retractable - when landing gear can fold into the bottom of the plane, benefit being that it can increase performance by streamlining the airplane

Fuel system sub-groups:

gravity fed - high wing airplanes

fuel pump - low wing airplanes (required to send fuel from the tanks to the engine since fuel is located below the engine and needs to be sent upward

If a fuel tank did not have a vent, fuel could initially flow from the tank, but as the level decreases, there would be nothing replenish it, creating a vacuum that would stop fuel flowing to the engine.

Most general aviation planes use 100-LowLead fuel, that is blue.

As the oil is cooling the engine, it lubricates the moving parts, providing a protective coating to prevent corrosion and remove dirt and other particles from the engine. 

Two types of systems:

wet-sump: oil is located in a tank at the base of the engine

dry-sump: has a separate oil tank that separates the oil system from the engine.

With smaller planes, the hydraulic system powers the breaks to stop the plane, extend or terrace the landing gear, or change the blade angle on a constant speed propeller. 

If the breaks are pressed on, a piston drives fluid from the break actuator on the pedal, through hydraulic lines, then to the actuator near the wheels. The fluid then pushes a piston that mechanically squeezes the break pads against the break disk, causing the plane to slow down.