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In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage,[1] and is the junction of the wing with the fuselage (not with a nacelle or any other body). The term is also used for the junction of the wing with the opposite wing, i.e., on the fuselage centerline, as with the upper wing of a biplane.[2] The opposite end of a wing from the wing root is the wing tip.
The aerodynamic properties of the overall aircraft can be greatly impacted by the shaping and other design choices of the wing root.[3] During both normal flight and landings, the wing root of an aircraft would be typically subjected to the highest bending forces through the aircraft. As a means of reducing interference drag between the wing and the fuselage, the use of fairings (often referred to as "wing fillets") became commonplace during the first half of the twentieth century;[4][5] the use of wing root fairings has been credited with achieving more favourable flight characteristics at both high and low speeds.[6] Furthermore, various other innovations and approaches have been developed to influence/control airflow in the vicinity of the wing root to achieve more favourable performance.[7] Various calculating methods for designed an optimal wing root of an aircraft have been devised.[8][9]
Fatigue has been recognised as a critical life-limiting factor associated with the wing root, which will eventually lead to catastrophic failure if not monitored.[10] Accordingly, it is commonplace within an aircraft's maintenance regime to mandate periodic assessments of the wing root to check for fatigue cracking and other signs of strain. For this purpose, the use of appropriately-applied strain gauges has become widespread, although alternative methods of detection have also been used.[11][12]
In the case of hypersonic aircraft, the wing root is judged to be a critical structural areas in terms of its heat migration and dissipation properties.[13]
Media related to Wing root at Wikimedia CommonsSource: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage, and is the junction of the wing with the fuselage (not with a nacelle or any other body). The term is also used for the junction of the wing with the opposite wing, i.e., on the fuselage centerline, as with the upper wing of a biplane. The opposite end of a wing from the wing root is the wing tip. The aerodynamic properties of the overall aircraft can be greatly impacted by the shaping and other design choices of the wing root. During both normal flight and landings, the wing root of an aircraft would be typically subjected to the highest bending forces through the aircraft. As a means of reducing interference drag between the wing and the fuselage, the use of fairings (often referred to as "wing fillets") became commonplace during the first half of the twentieth century; the use of wing root fairings has been credited with achieving more favourable flight characteristics at both high and low speeds. Furthermore, various other innovations and approaches have been developed to influence/control airflow in the vicinity of the wing root to achieve more favourable performance. Various calculating methods for designed an optimal wing root of an aircraft have been devised. Fatigue has been recognised as a critical life-limiting factor associated with the wing root, which will eventually lead to catastrophic failure if not monitored. Accordingly, it is commonplace within an aircraft's maintenance regime to mandate periodic assessments of the wing root to check for fatigue cracking and other signs of strain. For this purpose, the use of appropriately-applied strain gauges has become widespread, although alternative methods of detection have also been used. In the case of hypersonic aircraft, the wing root is judged to be a critical structural areas in terms of its heat migration and dissipation properties.
The gull wing, also known as Polish wing or Puławski wing, is an aircraft wing configuration with a prominent bend in the wing inner section towards the wing root. Its name is derived from the seabirds which it resembles and from the Polish aircraft designer Zygmunt Puławski who started using this design in his planes. Numerous aircraft have incorporated such wings for a diverse range of purposes. The gull wing was commonly used to improve visibility in a high wing arrangement, because such wing could be thinnest by the fuselage, and in theory should limit pilot's view no more than A-pillars of a windscreen in a car body. Gliders were the first aircraft to feature the gull wing, starting with the Weltensegler in 1921; it was not until the record-breaking Fafnir at the end of that decade did the configuration gain popularity. Beyond becoming popular for the next three decades amongst high-performance gliders, various ground-based aircraft and flying boats also adopted various forms of gull wings. It rose to particular prominence in Poland, where the Polish aviation designer Zygmunt Puławski developed a range of fighter aircraft during the late 1920s and early 1930s; in particular, the PZL P.11, which possessed various cutting-edge features for the era in addition to its high-mounted gull wing, has been described as being the most advanced fighter aircraft of its kind in the world upon its introduction. The PZL P.11 served as Poland's primary fighter aircraft during the mid to late 1930s, while its further development, the PZL P.24, served in the air forces of several countries and was a major success of the Polish aircraft industry. Various flying boats, such as the Short Knuckleduster, Dornier Do 26, and PBM Mariner, also adopted the gull wing configuration, primarily as it enabled the engines to be positioned higher above the water. A variant of the standard configuration, the "inverted gull wing", has been used on numerous fighters to facilitate the use of shorter landing gear and to provide sufficient ground clearance for their propellers.
Wing fences, also known as boundary layer fences and potential fences are fixed aerodynamic devices attached to aircraft wings. Often seen on swept-wing aircraft, wing fences are flat plates fixed to the upper surfaces parallel to the wing chord and in line with the free stream airflow, typically wrapping around the leading edge. By obstructing span-wise airflow along the wing, they prevent the entire wing from stalling at once, as opposed to wingtip devices, which increase aerodynamic efficiency by seeking to recover wing vortex energy. As a swept-wing aircraft slows toward the stall speed of the wing, the angle of the leading edge forces some of the airflow sidewise, toward the wing tip. This process is progressive: airflow near the middle of the wing is affected not only by the leading edge angle, but also the spanwise airflow from the wing root. At the wing tip the airflow can end up being almost all spanwise, as opposed to front-to-back over the wing, meaning that the effective airspeed drops well below the stall. Because the geometry of swept wings typically places the wingtips of an aircraft aft of its center of gravity, lift generated at the wingtips tends to create a nose-down pitching moment. When the wingtips stall, both the lift and the associated nose-down pitching moment rapidly diminish. The loss of the nose-down pitching moment leaves the previously balanced aircraft with a net nose-up pitching moment. This forces the nose of the aircraft up, increasing the angle of attack and leading to stall over a greater portion of the wing. The result is a rapid and powerful pitch-up followed by a complete stall, a difficult situation for a pilot to recover from. The "Sabre dance" (which caused many F-100 Super Sabres to crash) is a notable example of this behavior. Wing fences delay, or eliminate, these effects by preventing the spanwise flow from moving too far along the wing and gaining speed. When meeting the fence, the air is directed back over the wing surface. Similar solutions included a notch or dogtooth in the leading edge, as seen on the Avro Arrow, or the use of slats, as on the earlier versions of the F-86. Slats can act as fences directly, in the form of their actuators, but also reduce the problem by improving the angle of attack response of the wing and moving the stall point to a lower speed. Although wing fences over the wing have been known in the UK since 1914, probably due to the RAF's spin research program begun as early as 1912, the invention of the fences is often attributed to German aerodynamicist Liebe of Messerschmitt, with a patent application in 1938. By 1947, after the introduction of subsonic swept wings, fences independently implemented in the USSR and the US: Lavochkin La-160, Mikoyan MiG-15, Northrop YB-49, McDonnell XF-85. But in the USSR such fences were used more often and for the longest time, they were made large and numerous: from MiG-15 to MiG-25, from Tu-128 to Tu-160, from Su-7 to Su-22. Wing fences reduce induced drag by increasing the height of the lifting system, but they are not as effective as wingtip devices.
Neptis rivularis, the Hungarian glider, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It lives in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, central Asia and the Far East as far as Japan. The breadth of its wings is 25–27 mm. It prefers forest habitats, and its caterpillars feed on Spiraea. The upper side of the forewings is black or black-brown in colour, with a band of white spots. One or more smaller white spots can also be found between the band and the wing root. The outermost wing edge is narrow and white in colour. The underside is rusty brown and otherwise shows the same white markings as the upper side. The upper side of the hind wings is also black or black-brown in colour, edged with white on the outside with a semicircular, broad, white band, which is only broken by the dark veins. The underside is rust-brown and again shows the white markings of the upper side, with the white band outlined in black. It is very similar to Neptis sappho.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Madam C.J. Walker