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Know All the Wright Angles

In July of 1901, the Wright Brothers were at Big Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina for more tests on their glider. On one day in particular, July 27th, there were many unsuccessful launches. The glider did get into the air, but it would stall. The stall occurred under the same circumstances for each flight. It happened when the glider slowed its speed. When its speed slowed, the pilot would increase the wing angle to compensate and maintain lift. At a certain critical point when the angle was very steep, the airflow over the top of the wing would become turbulent. This meant that the wing stopped generating lift.

When the brothers returned to Dayton, Ohio, for the winter, they needed to perform some experiments on the angle of attack for the 1901 glider. They used their own wind tunnel to test airfoil shapes. They sued data that they collected from those tests and other to solve their problem.

It is now 98 years later and a replica of the Wright Brothers' airplane, the Flyer, is mounted in the 40' x 80' wind tunnel at Ames Research Center. The researchers are concerned about the airplane's lift and drag for safe flight. The AIAA pilots have many questions concerning how the airplane will fly. Among other questions they have these questions about angle of attack:

Which angle of attack would give the glider the greatest amount of lift?
What cruising angle would be the most efficient for flight?
What is the stall angle for his glider?

If you need a review of how to understand wind tunnel tests results, then read through the information from "Know All the Angles"

If you are comfortable in your understanding of the data gathered during wind tunnel tests then go on to Activity Sheets #1 and #2 and help the AIAA pilots in answering their questions.