The interference between struts in various combinations (open access)

The interference between struts in various combinations

This report presents the results of wind tunnel tests made to determine the interference drag arising from various arrangements of streamline struts and round struts, or cylinders. Determinations were made of the interference drag of struts spaced side by side, struts in tandem, tandem struts encased in a single fairing, a strut intersecting a plane, and struts intersecting to form a v. Three sizes of struts were used for most of the tests. These tests show that the interference drag arising from struts in close proximity may be of considerable magnitude, in some instances amounting to more than the drag of the struts themselves.
Date: June 5, 1933
Creator: Biermann, David & Herrnstein, William H., Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cooling on the front of an air-cooled engine cylinder in a conventional engine cowling (open access)

Cooling on the front of an air-cooled engine cylinder in a conventional engine cowling

Measurements were made of the cooling on the fronts of model cylinders in a conventional cowling for cooling in both the ground and the cruising conditions. The mechanisms of front and rear cooling are essentially different. Cooling on the rear baffled part of the cylinders continually increases with increasing fin width. For the front of the cylinder, an optimum fin width was found to exist beyond which an increase in width reduced the heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient on the front of the cylinders was larger on the side of the cylinder facing the propeller swirl than on the opposite side. This effect became more pronounced as the fin width was increased. These results are introductory to the study of front cooling and show the general effect of several test parameters.
Date: April 5, 1939
Creator: Brevoort, M. J. & Joyner, U. T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Stability of Thin-Walled Tubes Under Torsion (open access)

Stability of Thin-Walled Tubes Under Torsion

"In this report a theoretical solution is developed for the torsion on a round thin-walled tube for which the walls become unstable. The results of this theory are given by a few simple formulas and curves which cover all cases. The differential equations of equilibrium are derived in a simpler form than previously found, it being shown that many items can be neglected" (p. 3).
Date: May 5, 1933
Creator: Donnell, L. H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reduction of hinge moments of airplane control surfaces by tabs (open access)

Reduction of hinge moments of airplane control surfaces by tabs

This report presents the results of an investigation conducted in the NACA 7 by 10-foot wind tunnel of control surfaces equipped with tabs for reducing the control forces or trimming the aircraft. Two sizes of ordinary ailerons with several sizes of attached and inset tabs were tested on a Clark y wing. Tabs were also tested in combination with auxiliary balances of the horn and paddle types, and with a frise balance aileron.
Date: February 5, 1935
Creator: Harris, Thomas A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Auto-Ignition and Combustion of Diesel Fuel in a Constant-Volume Bomb (open access)

Auto-Ignition and Combustion of Diesel Fuel in a Constant-Volume Bomb

Report presents the results of a study of variations in ignition lag and combustion associated with changes in air temperature and density for a diesel fuel in a constant-volume bomb. The test results have been discussed in terms of engine performance wherever comparisons could be drawn. The most important conclusions drawn from this investigation are: the ignition lag was essentially independent of the injected fuel quantity. Extrapolation of the curves for the fuel used shows that the lag could not be greatly decreased by exceeding the compression-ignition engines. In order to obtain the best combustion and thermal efficiency, it was desirable to use the longest ignition lag consistent with a permissible rate of pressure rise.
Date: October 5, 1937
Creator: Selden, Robert F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interference of Tail Surfaces and Wing and Fuselage from Tests of 17 Combinations in the N.A.C.A. Variable-Density Tunnel (open access)

Interference of Tail Surfaces and Wing and Fuselage from Tests of 17 Combinations in the N.A.C.A. Variable-Density Tunnel

"An investigation of the interference associated with tail surfaces added to wing-fuselage combinations was included in the interference program in progress in the NACA variable-density tunnel. The results indicate that, in aerodynamically clean combinations, the increment of the high-speed drag can be estimated from section characteristics within useful limits of accuracy. The interference appears mainly as effects on the downwash angle and as losses in the tail effectiveness and varies with the geometry of the combination" (p. 689).
Date: November 5, 1938
Creator: Sherman, Albert
System: The UNT Digital Library
Design of NACA Cowlings for Radial Air-Cooled Engines (open access)

Design of NACA Cowlings for Radial Air-Cooled Engines

"The information on the propeller-cowling-nacelle combinations, presented in Technical Reports nos. 592, 593, and 596 and in Technical Note 620, is applied to the practical design of NACA cowlings. The main emphasis is placed on the method of obtaining the dimensions of the cowling; consequently, the physical functioning of each part of the cowling is treated very briefly. A practical method of designing cowlings and some examples are presented" (p. 383).
Date: March 5, 1938
Creator: Stickle, George W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wind-Tunnel Research Comparing Lateral Control Devices, Particularly at High Angles of Attack 3: Ordinary Ailerons Rigged Up 10 Degrees When Neutral (open access)

Wind-Tunnel Research Comparing Lateral Control Devices, Particularly at High Angles of Attack 3: Ordinary Ailerons Rigged Up 10 Degrees When Neutral

This report presents the results of wind-tunnel tests made on three model wings having different sizes of ordinary ailerons rigged up 10 degrees when neutral, the same models having previously been tested with the ailerons rigged even with the wings in the usual manner. One of the wings had ailerons of medium size, 25 per cent of the wing chord by 40 per cent of the semispan, one had long, narrow ailerons, and one had short, wide ones. These tests are part of a general investigation on lateral control devices, with particular reference to the control at high angles of attack, in which all the devices are being subjected to the same series of tests in the 7 by 10 foot wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
Date: February 5, 1932
Creator: Weick, Fred E. & Wenzinger, Carl J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Full-scale tests of metal propellers at high tip speeds (open access)

Full-scale tests of metal propellers at high tip speeds

This report describes tests of 10 full-scale metal propellers of several thickness ratios at various tip speeds up to 1,350 feet per second. The results indicate no loss of efficiency up to tip speeds of approximately 1,000 feet per second. Above this tip speed the loss is at a rate of about 10 per cent per 100 feet per second increase relative to the efficiency at the lower speeds for propellers of pitch diameter ratios 0.3 to 0.4. Propellers having sections of small thickness ratio can be run at slightly higher speeds than thick ones before beginning to lose efficiency.
Date: November 5, 1930
Creator: Wood, Donald H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characteristics of Clark Y airfoils of small aspect ratios (open access)

Characteristics of Clark Y airfoils of small aspect ratios

This report presents the results of a series of wind tunnel tests showing the force, moment, and autorotational characteristics of Clark Y airfoils having aspect ratios varying from 0.5 to 3. An airfoil of rectangular plan form was tested with rectangular tips, flared tips, and semicircular tips. Tests were also made on one airfoil of circular plan form and two airfoils of elliptical plan form. The tests revealed a marked delay of the stall and a decided increase in values of maximum lift coefficient and maximum resultant force coefficient for aspect ratios of the order of 1 as compared with values for aspect ratios of 2 and 3.
Date: May 5, 1932
Creator: Zimmerman, C. H.
System: The UNT Digital Library