SECRET · DECLASSIFIED: FOR FLIGHT TRAINING PROJECT TALL MESA · 1957 TRAINING AID · FICTIONAL TEST ARTICLE

Coyote Flats Aeronautical Station · Experimental Engineering Section · High Bay 4

Project Tall MesaModel 57-K low-speed wing · No. 2 Low-Speed Smoke Tunnel · Wing Bay 2

Ready on Smoke on Horn off Stall off Buffet off Limit off Rigging off Fault off
Run 0147
High-speed film · 1/34 speed
Do not enter while tunnel operating
Section station

White smoke is drawn at the speed the air really moves over the wing, slowed down for the film. Equal air flows between neighbouring streamlines.

Angle of attack

Airspeed & q

Lift balance

Drag balance

Coefficients

Stall warning

Manometer board

X-Y plotter

Span load survey

Buffet scope

G-meter

Downwash & momentum

Density altitude

Transit clock

Flight view

Drag vs airspeed

Punch-card log

Airframe release board

Ready-room myth board

Field manual

Lift in four lines

  1. Angle of attack and camber bend the airflow. Air over the top follows the curved surface and leaves heading down.
  2. Bending a flow takes a pressure difference. Pressure drops over the top (most of the lift) and rises a little underneath.
  3. Air speeds up into that low pressure. That's Bernoulli: speed and pressure change together.
  4. The pressure that pushes the wing up also pushes the air down: downwash, Newton's third law. L = CL·½ρV²·S, and angle of attack sets CL, up to the critical angle.