AIRPLANE COMPONENTS

A. The airplane consists of six principal structural units, namely, the power plant, the fuselage, the wing, the tail unit (or empennage), flight controls and the landing gear

( undercarriage ).

B. The power plant is a source of power. It provides power and propels the airplane. Nowadays there are many types of aircraftengines. These engines have one thing in common. The energy is derived from a chemical reaction which takes place inside the engine itself. Nacelles are compartments housing the power plant or engine and its accessories. The engine is really the heart of the airplane.

C. The fuselage is the main body of the airplane which is divided into some cabins (compartments). A nose cabin is a pilot’s cabin (cockpit). The cockpit houses the crew, the flight controls and flight instrument panels. The next section of the fuselage is a wing centre-section. Passenger compartments are situated there. The rear part of the fuselage is designed for cargo rooms and for mounting a tail unit on it.

D. The wing is the main lifting surface of sweptback shape. Its function is to support the aircraft in flight producing lifting force. There may be different arrangement, shapes and number of the wings. At the trailing edge of the wing there are movable parts which are called ailerons, flaps and trimmer tabs (trimmers).

E. The tail unit (empennage) provides the necessary stability and consists of vertical and horizontal control surfaces. The vertical plane is called a fin. It has a movable part – a rudder. The horizontal plane is a stabilizer. The movable part at the trailing edge of the stabilizer is an elevator.

F. Three basic flight control surfaces are the ailerons, the elevators, and the rudder. They are hinged so to move and thus to deflect the air stream passing over there. The ailerons are located at the trailing edge and near the tips of the wings. They control the motion of the plane about the longitudinal axis. The elevators are hinged to the horizontal stabilizers and control the airplane's movement up and down about the lateral axis. The rudder is hinged to the vertical stabilizer (fin), and it controls the movement of the airplane around the vertical axis.

J. The landing gear (undercarriage) carries the wheels on which the aircraft moves on the ground. Struts attach it to the fuselage. Two different arrangements of landing wheels are in use today. They are conventional tricycle gears and the landing gear with a skid. The landing gear may be retractable and non-retractable.

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