A simple analysis is performed on the flight of a small balsa toy glider. All the basic features of flight have to be included in the calculation. Key differences between the flight of small objects like the glider, and full-sized aircraft, are examined. Good agreement with experimental data is obtained when only one parameter, the drag coefficient, is allowed to vary. The experimental drag coefficient is found to be within a factor of 2 of that obtained using the theory of ideal flat plates.
REFERENCES
1.
P. P. Wegener, What Makes Airplanes Fly? (Springer, New York, 1991), p. 169.
2.
C.
Waltham
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,” Am. J. Phys.
65
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).3.
H. Tennekes, The Simple Science of Flight (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1997), p. 127.
4.
See, for example,
C. P.
Ellington
, C.
van den Berg
, and P. A.
Willmott
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,” Nature (London)
384
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F. M. White, Fluid Mechanics (McGraw–Hill, New York, 1979), p. 427.
6.
B. Jones, Elements of Practical Aerodynamics (Wiley, New York, 1942), 3rd ed., p. 21.
7.
J. D. Anderson, Jr., A History of Aerodynamics (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1997), p. 323.
8.
Ibid, p. 456.
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© 1999 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1999
American Association of Physics Teachers
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