Report presents methods of calculating air resistance of airfoils under certain conditions of flow phenomena around the airfoil.

This collection of data on airfoils has been made from the published reports of a number of the leading Aerodynamic Laboratories of this country and Europe. The information which was originally expressed according to the different customs of the several laboratories is here presented in a uniform series of charts and tables suitable for the use of designing engineers and for purposes of general reference. The authority for the results here presented is given as the name of the laboratory at which the experiments were conducted, with the size of the model, wind velocity, and year of test.

"Tests were conducted on the 6-inch wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to form a part of a research on open-throat wind tunnels. The primary object of this part of the research was to study a type of air pulsation which has been encountered in open-throat tunnels, and to find the most satisfactory means of eliminating such pulsations. In order to do this it was necessary to study the effects of different variable on all of the important characteristics of the tunnel" (p. 399).

"This report presents the results of an investigation to determine the coefficients of discharge of nozzles with small, round orifices of the size used with high-speed compression-ignition engines. The injection pressures and chamber back pressures employed were comparable to those existing in compression-ignition engines during injection. The construction of the nozzles was varied to determine the effect of the nozzle design on the coefficient. Tests were also made with nozzles assembled in an automatic injection valve, both with a plain and with a helically grooved stem" (p. 193).

This report contains the derivation of a series of simple approximate equations for density ratios and for the pressure ratio in the standard atmosphere. The accuracy of the various equations is discussed and the limits of applications are given. Several of these equations are in excellent agreement with the standard values.

Static thrust data from more than 100 airplane propeller tests are collected from various sources and combined in working charts, from which the static thrust coefficient may be readily determined. The available data cover practically all types of propellers and are in good agreement.

This report presents the results of wind tunnel tests of two airship models conducted to determine the drag coefficients at zero pitch, and the effect of fins and cars and of flat and streamlined protuberances located at various positions along the hull. During the investigation the stern of one model was rounded off to produce a blunter shape. The extreme range of the Reynolds number based on the over-all length of the models was from 1,300,000 to 33,000,000. At large values of the Reynolds number the streamlined protuberance affected the drag very little, and the additional drag caused by the flat protuberance was less than the calculated drag by the protuberance alone. The fins and cars together increased the bare-hull drag about 20 per cent.

"An investigation of the combustion of gasoline, safety, and diesel fuels was made in the NACA combustion apparatus under conditions of temperature that permitted ignition by spark with direct fuel injection, in spite of the compression ratio of 12.7 employed. The influence of such variables as injection advance angle, jacket temperature, engine speed, and spark position was studied. The most pronounced effect was that an increase in the injection advance angle (beyond a certain minimum value) caused a decrease in the extent and rate of combustion. In almost all cases combustion improved with increased temperature" (p. 125).

This report presents the results of an investigation to determine the effect of baffles on the temperature distribution and the heat-transfer coefficient of finned cylinders. The tests were conducted in a 30-inch wind tunnel on electrically heated cylinders with fins of 0.25 and 0.31 inch pitch. The results of these tests showed that the use of integral baffles gave a reduction of 31.9 percent in the rear wall temperatures and an increase of 54.2 percent in the heat transfer coefficient as compared with a cylinder without baffles.

This report describes an investigation using a stroboscopic apparatus for observing flame movement through a large number of small windows distributed over the head of a spark-ignition engine in following flame spread with combustion chambers of different shapes at two engine speed and for a variety of spark-plug locations including single and twin ignition. The principal factors influencing flame movement in the engine are discussed, and the lack of reliable information regarding their separate effects upon the structure of the flame and its speed of propagation are emphasized.

Report presents the results of an investigation conducted to study the effects of the inert gases, argon and helium, upon flame speed and expansion ratio in exploding mixtures of carbon monoxide, oxygen and water. For the particular gas mixtures investigated the results show that: (1) With the possible exception of helium in small amounts the addition of inert gas always produces decreased flame speed and expansion ratio; (2) like volumes of argon and helium have very different effects upon flame speed but practically the same effect upon expansion ratio; and (3) the difference in the effect of these two gases upon speed is independent of the ratio of carbon monoxide to oxygen. A discussion of some possible modes by which inert gases may produce the observed effects is included.

This report presents the results of tests made to determine the rolling friction of airplane wheels and tires under various conditions of wheel loading, tire inflation pressure, and ground surface. The effect of wheel-bearing type was also investigated. Six pairs of wheels and tires were tested including two sizes of each of the types designated as standard (high pressure), low pressure, and extra low pressure. The results of calculations intended to show the effect of variations in rolling friction on take-off are also presented.

This report presents the results of an investigation conducted to determine the interrelation of the constituents of the exhaust gases of internal-combustion engines and the effect of engine performance on these relations. Six single-cylinder, liquid-cooled tests engines and one 9-cylinder radial air-cooled engine were tested. Various types of combustion chambers were used and the engines were operated at compression ratios from 5.1 to 7.0 using spark ignition and from 13.5 to 15.6 using compression ignition. The investigation covered a range of engine speeds from 1,500 to 2,100 r.p.m.

Report presents the results of a study made of the effects of known end restraint on commercially available round and streamline tubing of chromium-molybdenum steel, duralumin, stainless steel, and heat-treated chromium-molybdenum steel; and a more accurate method than any previously available, but still a practical method, was developed for designing compression members in riveted or welded structures, particularly aircraft. Two hundred specimens were tested as short, medium-length, and long columns with freely supported ends or elastically restrained ends. Tensile and compressive tests were made on each piece of original tubing from which column specimens were cut.

An analysis is presented of the relationship of various engine factors to knock in preignition in an aircraft engine. From this analysis and from the available experimental data, a method of evaluating the knocking characteristics of the fuel in an aircraft-engine cylinder is suggested.

A 4-stroke-cycle test engine was equipped with a glass cylinder and the air movements within it were studied while the engine was being motored. Different types of air flow were produced by using shrouded intake valves in various arrangements and by altering the shape of the intake-air passage in the cylinder head. The air movements were made visible by mixing feathers with the entering air, and high-speed motion pictures were taken of them so that the air currents might be studied in detail and their velocities measured. Motion pictures were also taken of gasoline sprays injected into the cylinder on the intake stroke. The photographs showed that: a wide variety of induced air movements could be created in the cylinder; the movements always persisted throughout the compression stroke; and the only type of movement that persisted until the end of the cycle was rotation about the cylinder axis.

From Summary: "The results of the basic flutter theory originally devised in 1934 and published as NACA Technical Report no. 496 are presented in a simpler and more complete form convenient for further studies. The paper attempts to facilitate the judgement of flutter problems by a systematic survey of the theoretical effects of the various parameters. A large number of experiments were conducted on cantilever wings, with and without ailerons, in the NACA high-speed wind tunnel for the purpose of verifying the theory and to study its adaptability to three-dimensional problems."

"Extruded aluminum-alloy members of various cross sections are used in aircraft as compression members either singly or as stiffeners for aluminum-alloy sheet. In order to design such members, it is necessary to know their column strength or, in the case of stiffeners, the value of the double modulus, which is best obtained for practical purposes from column tests. Column tests made on two extruded h-sections are described, and column formulas and formulas for the ratio of the double modulus to Young's modulus, based on the tests, are given" (p. 289).

"Simultaneous measurements were made of the speed of flame and the rise in pressure during explosions of mixtures of carbon monoxide, normal heptane, iso-octane, and benzene in a 10-inch spherical bomb with central ignition. From these records, fundamental properties of the explosive mixtures, which are independent of the apparatus, were computed. The transformation velocity, or speed at which flame advances into and transforms the explosive mixture, increases with both the temperature and the pressure of the unburned gas" (p. 39).

In connection with the general problem of providing air flow to an aircraft power plant located within a fuselage, an investigation was conducted in the Langley 8-foot high-speed tunnel to determine the effect on external drag and pressure distribution of air inlet openings located at the nose of a streamline body. Air outlet openings located at the tail and at the 21-percent and 63-percent stations of the body were also investigated. Boundary layer transition measurements were made and correlated with the force and the pressure data. Individual openings were investigated with the aid of a blower and then practicable combinations of inlet and outlet openings were tested. Various modifications to the internal duct shape near the inlet opening and the aerodynamic effects of a simulated gun in the duct were also studied. The results of the tests suggested that outlet openings should be designed so that the static pressure of the internal flow at the outlet would be the same as the static pressure of the external flow in the vicinity of the opening.

"The preignition characteristics of a number of fuels have been studied under conditions similar to those encountered in an engine. These conditions were simulated by suddenly compressing a fuel-air mixture in contact with an electrically heated hot spot in the cylinder head of the NACA combustion apparatus. Schlieren photographs and indicator cards were taken of the burning, and the hot-spot temperatures necessary to cause ignition under various conditions were determined" (p. 121).

"A new mathematical technique, due to Milne-Thomson, is used to obtain an improved form of the method of Poggi for calculating the effect of compressibility on the subsonic flow past an obstacle. By means of this new method, the difficult surface integrals of the original Poggi method can be replaced by line integrals. These line integrals are then solved by the use of residue theory. In this way an equation is obtained giving the second-order effect of compressibility on the velocity of the fluid" (p. 39).

Report presents the results of an investigation made in the NACA 7 by 10-foot wind tunnel of a NACA 23012 airfoil with 30-percent-chord venetian-blind flaps having one, two, three, and four slats of Clark y section. The three-slat arrangements was aerodynamically the best of those tested but showed practically no improvement over the comparable arrangement used in the preliminary tests published in NACA Technical Report No. 689. The multiple-slat flaps gave slightly higher lift coefficients than the one-slat (Fowler) flap but gave considerably greater pitching-moment coefficients.

"A single-stage axial fan was built and tested in the shop of the propeller-research tunnel of the NACA. The fan comprised a simple 24-blade rotor having a diameter of 21 inches and a solidity of 0.86 and a set of 37 contravanes having a solidity of 1.33. The rotor was driven by a 25-horsepower motor capable of rotating at a speed of 3600 r.p.m. The fan was tested for volume, pressure, and efficiency over a range of delivery pressures and volumes for a wide range of contravane and blade-angle settings" (p. 49).