Airbus A380
Sun, Feb 15, 2009
It’s a nice weekend isn’t it? The sun is coming out and I’d say I really enjoy the weekend. Few hours ago I watched the Engineering Connections hosted by Richard Hammond from Top Gear. This week, they revealed the engineering connections in Super Jumbo: A380 with ideas across the world and as well as the ancient history. (As today, you have 28 days to watch it on BBC iPlayer).
In this post, I would like to share you one part of the biggest passenger flight in terms of design and engineering prospect. I’d like to give credit to alan_nyer because his picture (below) made me want to write an article about the wing design of this an aircraft.
Ryan Air (Boeing 737-800) window view
The main purpose of the aeroplane wings are to create an uplift force which means the aerodynamic design is crucial. I don’t want to talk about the aerodynamic specifically but rather to look at the far end of the wings. For a conventional wing design, the end tip is just flat. If you refer to the picture above, the Boeing 737’s wing has a winglet at the edge of the wing. For a conventional wing design (which does not have the winglet), it will create a wing-tip vortex phenomenon where high pressure air from underneath the wing is leaking around the wing tip and pushing down on the top surface when there is a flow of air (Credit – Super Jumbo: A380, Engineering Connections). In short, it is not good.
Thus, small modification made by introducing the winglet at the edge of the aeroplane wings. This modification has remarkably increase the efficiency by 7% and allow a shorter design of the Airbus wing (20cm less then the regulation airport limit of 80 meters). Now that is an example of a good design.
Picture (above): Winglet design is inspired by the mother nature.
For your information, this wing design (winglet) was inspired by the eagle’s wing. For me, it shows the greatness of the Lord, the Designer of this world. If you would like to share anything, just submit your article and we’ll publish it. You will retain the copyright of the article and credit will be given. Besides that, you may also want to join our flickr group. Before I’m signing off, here is a brilliant photo of Airbus A380. It is simply gorgeous!
Watch the Super Jumbo: A380 on BBC iPlayer
Pictures credit: alan_nyer, o palsson, jurvetson, yeowatzup.
Tags: Airbus, engineering
All your donations will be used solely to build LENSA community. Apart from the web maintenance, we will use it to buy books and gadgets and review it. We will never waste every penny that you donate to us. That is our promise! - Rafie and Shamin, LENSA.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:16 AM
woah…love the photos and this article… ; ) two thumbs up!!
February 16th, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Thanks dude! One day I’ll go and look at the site myself. Oh, my uncle is a head engineer at MAS (Malaysian Airline System), maybe I can give him a call and ask if it is possible for us to drop by and take pictures. Wow, this would be great.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
it’s an honour to have my picture posted on ur blog.great article’s contain too..4 thumbs up!! (including my toe’s
)
February 21st, 2009 at 3:16 AM
Its an honour to have YOUR pic alan on our site ; )
March 20th, 2009 at 3:10 AM
Lovely shot Alan =) Congrats!
July 15th, 2010 at 6:46 PM
Hello just thought I would tell you something. This is twice now I’ve landed on your blog in the last 2 weeks looking for totally unrelated things. You’ve done a great job promoting your site. Love it!