Plane Parts & their Functions

Basic Parts of a Plane:

1. Wings
• Flaps
• Ailerons
• Spoilers
• Slats
• Wingtips
2. Fuselage(Body in general terms)
3. Vertical & Horizontal Stabilisers(Tail)

Wings

Every design of a plane starts with the wing. It plays a major role in deciding the lift of a plane and the capacity of the plane other than engines.

Shape of the wing when seen from a side is decided by the shape of airfoil. There are different kinds of airfoil structures based different lift, Reynolds number, drag etc(Will be explained in other sections).

Axes of an Aircraft

 

The motion of any body is studied with respect to change in its relative position with respect to the three axes. In case of an aircraft too, there are 3 axes about which its motion is considered.

1.) Normal or Vertical axis - This axis can be considered to be similar to the Y-axis in case of a co-ordinate plane and can be assumed to be pointing upwards through the aircraft. The motion that takes place with respect to this axis is known as Yaw or Yawing. The clockwise rotation (movement) of the aircraft with respect to this axis is considered to be positive (+ve) and vice versa. The yawing of an aircraft is controlled by the Rudder present at the tail.

2.) Longitudinal Axis - This axis can be considered to be similar to the X-axis in case of a Co-ordinate plane and can be assumed to be passing through the length of the aircraft, i.e. from the tail towards the nose. The motion that takes place with respect to this axis is known as Roll or Rolling. The Clockwise rotation of the plane as seen from its tail or the anticlockwise rotation of the plane as seen from its nose is taken to be positive (+ve) and vice-versa. The Rolling of an aircraft is controlled by the Elevators present on the wing.

3.) Lateral Axis - This Axis can be considered to be similar to the Z-axis in case of a co-ordinate plane and can be assumed to be passing from one wing towards the other, through the body in lateral direction. The motion that takes place with respect to this axis is called as Pitch or Pitching. The gain of altitude is taken to be positive (+ve) and vice-versa. The Pitching of an aircraft is controlled by the Elevator present at the tail.

The parts of wing and their functions:

1. Ailerons: These help in the Rolling motions of the plane.
2. Flaps & Slats: They usually work in combination and help in change in the lift by increasing the surface areas during take off and landing. They actually increase the chord length of the airfoil that is used to make the aircraft's wing.
3. Spoilers: These help in reduce the lift and increase drag during landing. They act like air-brakes. In the above figure you can notice the spoilers are up to reduce the speed of the aircraft.
4. Wingtips: These are present at the end of the wings to cutoff the affect of vortices formed during motion of the flight. They reduce the Induced Drag of an aircraft.

Fuselage

It is the part of the plane which carries the payload. Payload could be anything like passengers, cargo etc.

Tail

It has 2 parts in it:

1. Horizontal Stabilizer: It controls the pitch motion of the plane. The elevator is attached to it. The elevator moves the plane up or down.
2. Vertical Stabilizer: It controls the yaw motion of the plane. The rudder is the movable part of the vertical stabilizer which helps in the movement of the plane in x-z direction that is in the horizontal plane.

Motions of a Plane

Fighter Jets

As fighter jets are compact in size, the wings and vertical stabilizer are usually merged up. In this case the Ailerons and Elevators also merge up and are known as Elevons.
When both of them move in same direction the act as elevator and when they move in opposite direction they act as ailerons.
Rest other features are same compared to normal aircraft.