Friday, February 23, 2007

Jargon Busting!

Ah, Jargon! Love it or hate it, there is a lot of it. Some is really important to know. For example, bits and pieces of information that relate to "trimming", that is, getting the best performance out of your model. Other terminology is more esoteric, and arguably, not necessary for you to enjoy the sport of Free Flight (and it is officially a "sport" in the UK). I'm not proposing to explain all of the jargon. Instead, I'll list a whole raft of it now. Later, I'll explain some of the important terms, or at least give you a link to more information. So, in no particular order, here's a list:
  1. Lift
  2. Drag
  3. Best L/D
  4. Min Sink
  5. Polar
  6. Centre of Gravity
  7. Centre of Pressure and Aerodynamic Centre
  8. Angle of Attack
  9. Angle of Incidence
  10. Dihedral
  11. Decalage (sometimes called Longitudinal Dihedral) - great diagram here
  12. Moment Balance
  13. Stab Up, Stab Down
  14. Stab Tilt
  15. Stab Twist
  16. Stall
  17. Sideslip
  18. Dutch Roll
  19. Wash Out
  20. Wash In
  21. Tip Weight
  22. Wing Offset
  23. Wing Planform
  24. Aspect Ratio
  25. Wing Area
  26. Wing Loading
  27. Chord and Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC)
  28. Aerofoil section
  29. Camber
  30. Thickness
  31. Winglet
  32. Dethermaliser, or DT, or Dethermalizer
  33. Span Loading (two flavours)

1 comment:

Organic Recipes said...

thanks, very helpful for newbies

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