SMS
This stress occurs when opposite internal forces cause one layer of material to slide past another.
What is shear stress?
This nondimensional number compares inertial forces to viscous forces in fluid flow.
What is the Reynolds number?
This sensor fusion package commonly combines accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers.
What is an IMU?
This measurement is the distance from the leading edge to the trailing edge of a wing.
What is the chord length?
This aircraft made the first successful powered, controlled flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
What is the Wright Flyer?
This failure mode occurs when a slender member under compressive load suddenly bends sideways.
What is buckling?
This occurs when the boundary layer separates from the airfoil due to excessive angle of attack.
What is a stall?
This control method uses proportional, integral, and derivative terms to reduce system error.
What is PID control?
This dimensionless number compares aircraft speed to the speed of sound.
What is the Mach number?
This World War II British fighter is famous for its elliptical wings and major role in the Battle of Britain.
What is the Supermarine Spitfire?
This quantity is the product of force and perpendicular distance from a reference point.
What is a moment (or torque)?
This type of drag is directly associated with lift production on a finite wing.
What is induced drag?
This communication protocol is commonly used between a ground station and autopilot for telemetry and commands.
What is MAVLink?
This motor type is most commonly used in modern RC aircraft for high efficiency and power density.
What is a brushless DC motor?
Nicknamed the “Queen of the Skies,” this aircraft became the world’s first successful jumbo jet.
What is the Boeing 747?
This wing component resists most of the bending moment generated during flight.
What is the main spar?
This point on an airfoil is where aerodynamic moments are nearly constant with angle of attack.
What is the aerodynamic center?
This onboard system combines sensor data and control logic to stabilize and guide the aircraft during flight.
What is the flight controller?
This phenomenon causes the aircraft to require more lift-induced drag at low speeds near the ground during takeoff and landing.
What is ground effect?
This supersonic passenger aircraft, jointly developed by Britain and France, could cruise faster than Mach 2.
What is the Concorde?
For the same material and loading, increasing this geometric property greatly improves bending stiffness.
What is the area moment of inertia?
This stability characteristic refers to the aircraft’s initial tendency to return to equilibrium after disturbance.
What is static stability?
This failsafe behavior is commonly programmed so the aircraft can safely recover after losing radio communication.
What is Return-to-Launch (RTL) (or Return-to-Home)?
This aeroelastic instability can cause catastrophic wing oscillations at high speed.
What is flutter?
Officially designated the F-117, this was one of the first operational stealth combat aircraft.
What is the Nighthawk?