Pilot Institute
MARCH 28, 2025
When air flows over the aircraft wing, the shape of the airfoil creates low pressure above the wing and relatively higher pressure below the wing. After one aircraft lands, the tailwind pushes the vortices forward into the runways touchdown zone. This distance is measured when the preceding aircraft is over the runway threshold.
Vintage Aviation News
DECEMBER 29, 2024
Davis, who had developed a new wing, whose airfoil had a lower drag co-efficiency than other wing designs of the time, and which had already been used on the company’s Model 31/XP4Y Corregidor flying boat. The company had hired a freelance aeronautical engineer, David R. The crew of four was comprised of William B.
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Plane and Pilot
APRIL 14, 2025
The NXT was designed using computer-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD), NASA-derived airfoils, and was tested in the Lockheed wind tunnel to refine the aerodynamics. Obviously, longer runways are required, and the skill level to handle this high-speed taildragger is quite high.
Vintage Aviation News
SEPTEMBER 21, 2024
Operation of the aircraft from either Center was not practical because of runway length. However, by the mid 1950s, the desire to increase the range and speed of large airplanes led to swept-back wings of high aspect ratio, thin airfoils, and fuselages with high fineness ratios (i.e. long and thin).
Fear of Landing
MARCH 22, 2024
Supercritical Airfoil During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA scientist Richard Whitcomb led a team of researchers to develop and test a series of unique geometric shapes of airfoils or wing sections that could be applied to subsonic transports to improve lift and reduce drag.
Vintage Aviation News
OCTOBER 18, 2024
At that point, you’re simply looking down the runway, and then it lifts off. You just make one great big U-turn, that way you can kind of watch the runway the whole time. That was kind of a strange feeling to get over that squishiness as the airplane settles down on the runway.”
Pilot's Life Blog
FEBRUARY 11, 2025
The wings are designed with an airfoil shape, curved on the top and flatter on the bottom, creating a pressure difference when air flows over them. Each rotor blade acts as an airfoil, and as it rotates, it moves air over its surface, generating lift. Unlike airplanes, they can hover, move sideways, and land without a runway.
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