Report presents the results of an investigation of the effects of ground interference on the aerodynamic characteristics of a 42 degree sweptback wing at distances 0.68 and 0.92 of the mean aerodynamic chord from the simulated ground to the 0.25-chord point of the mean aerodynamic chord. Survey data behind the wing, both with and without the simulated ground, are presented in the form of contour charts of downwash, sidewash, and dynamic-pressure ratio at longitudinal stations of 2.0 and 2.8 mean aerodynamic chords behind the wing.

The loss of strength of cast polymethyl methacrylate plastic as a result of crazing is of considerable importance to the aircraft industry. Because of the critical need for basic information on the nature of crazing and the effects of various treatments and environmental conditions on its incidence and magnitude, an investigation of this phenomenon was undertaken. The following factors were examined: (1) the effect of stress-solvent crazing on tensile strength of polymethyl methacrylate; (2) the critical stress and strain for onset of crazing at various temperatures; (3) the effect of molecular weight on crazing; and (4) the effect of multiaxial stretching on crazing of polymethyl methacrylate and other acrylic glazing materials.

Transonic similarity rules are applied to the correlation of experimental data for a series of related rectangular wings of varying aspect ratio, thickness, and camber. The data correlation is presented in two parts: the first part presents the correlation for a series of 22 wings having symmetrical NACA 63a-series sections; the second part is concerned with a study of one type of camber by correlation of the data for a series of 18 cambered wings having NACA 63a2xx and 63a4xx sections.

"An approximate thermal equation was derived for quenching distance based on a previously proposed diffusional treatment. The quenching distance was expressed in terms of the thermal conductivity, the fuel mole fraction, the heat capacity, the rate of the rate-controlling chemical reaction, a constant that depends on the geometry of the quenching surface, and one empirical constant. The effect of pressure on quenching distance was shown to be inversely proportional to the pressure dependence of the flame reaction, with small correction necessitated by the effect of pressure on flame temperature" (p. 1).

"This report describes the results of a comprehensive study of plastic deformation of aluminum single crystals over a wide range of temperatures. The results of constant-stress creep tests have been reported for the temperature range from 400 degrees to 900 degrees F. For these tests, a new capacitance-type extensometer was designed. This unit has a range of 0.30 inch over which the sensitivity is very nearly linear and can be varied from as low a sensitivity as is desired to a maximum of 20 microinches per millivolt with good stability" (p. 353).

Equations are derived to demonstrate which distribution of lifting elements result in a minimum amount of aerodynamic drag. The lifting elements were arranged (1) in one line, (2) parallel lying in a transverse plane, and (3) in any direction in a transverse plane. It was shown that the distribution of lift which causes the least drag is reduced to the solution of the problem for systems of airfoils which are situated in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flight.

The pressure distribution and resistance found by theory and experiment for simple quadrics fixed in an infinite uniform stream of practically incompressible fluid are calculated. The experimental values pertain to air and some liquids, especially water; the theoretical refer sometimes to perfect, again to viscid fluids. Formulas for the velocity at all points of the flow field are given. Pressure and pressure drag are discussed for a sphere, a round cylinder, the elliptic cylinder, the prolate and oblate spheroid, and the circular disk. The velocity and pressure in an oblique flow are examined.

A general method for finding the steady flow velocity relative to a body in plane curvilinear motion, whence the pressure is found by Bernoulli's energy principle is described. Integration of the pressure supplies basic formulas for the zonal forces and moments on the revolving body. The application of the steady flow method for calculating the velocity and pressure at all points of the flow inside and outside an ellipsoid and some of its limiting forms is presented and graphs those quantities for the latter forms.

A set of propeller operating efficiency charts, based on a coefficient from which the propeller rotational speed has been eliminated, is presented. These charts were prepared with data obtained from tests of full-size metal propellers in the NACA propeller-research tunnel. Working charts for nine propeller-body combinations are presented, including results from tests of dual-rotating propellers. These charts are to be used in the calculation of the range and the endurance of airplanes equipped with constant-speed propellers in which, for given flight conditions, it is desired to determine the propeller revolution speed that gives the maximum ratio of the propulsive efficiency to the specific fuel consumption. The coefficient on which the charts are based may be written in the form of a thrust coefficient or a thrust-power coefficient. A method of using the charts is outlined and sample computations for a typical airplane are included.

An approximate method is presented for the calculation of the external lift, moment, and pressure drag of slender open-nose bodies of revolution of supersonic speeds. The lift, moment, and pressure drag of a typical ram-jet body shape are calculated at Mach numbers 1.45, 1.60, 1.75, and 3.00; and the lift and moment results are compared with available experimental data. The agreement of the calculated lift and moment data with the experimental data is excellent. The pressure-drag comparison was not presented because of the uncertainty of the amount of skin-friction drag present in the experimental results.

"The study of combustion in a spark-ignition engine given in Technical Report no. 704 has been continued. The investigation was made with the NACA high-speed motion-picture camera and the NACA optical engine indicator. The camera operates at the rate of 40,000 photographs a second and makes possible the study of phenomena occurring in time intervals as short as 0.000025 second. Photographs are presented of combustion without knock and with both light and heavy knocks, the end zone of combustion being within the field of view" (p. 15).

This paper presents a continuation of the work published in Technical Report no. 496. The results of that paper have been extended to include the effect of aerodynamic balance and the effect of a tab added to the aileron. The aerodynamic coefficients are presented in a form convenient for application to the flutter problem.

The variation of pressure distribution is calculated for a two-dimensional supersonic airfoil either experiencing a sudden angle-of-attack change or entering a sharp-edge gust. From these pressure distributions the indicial lift functions applicable to unsteady lift problems are determined for two cases. Results are presented which permit the determination of maximum increment in lift coefficient attained by an unrestrained airfoil during its flight through a gust. As an application of these results, the minimum altitude for safe flight through a specific gust is calculated for a particular supersonic wing of given strength and wing loading.

"The longitudinal stability characteristics of elastic swept wings of high aspect ratio experiencing bending and torsional deformations are calculated for supersonic speed by the application of linearized lifting-surface theory. A parabolic wing deflection curve is assumed and the analysis is simplified by a number of structural approximations. The method is thereby limited in application to wings of high aspect ratio for which the root effects are small" (p. 1).

The Weissinger method for determining additional span loading for incompressible flow is used to find the damping in roll, the lateral center of pressure of the rolling for wing plan forms of various aspect ratios, taper ratios, and sweep angles. In addition, the applicability of the method to the determination of certain other aerodynamic derivatives is investigated, and corrections for the first-order effects of compressibility are indicated. The agreement obtained between experimentally and theoretically determined values for the aerodynamic coefficients indicates that the method of Weissinger is well suited to the calculation of such resulting aerodynamic derivatives of wings as do not involve considerations of tip suction.

From Introduction: "The present paper is restricted to a discussion of wing theory subject to the assumptions of linearized compressible flow. It therefore employs solutions of Laplace's equation and the wave equation for cases where the boundary condition are specified in the plane of the wing."

From Introduction: "An analytical method for estimating turbine performance from angles and flow areas was therefore developed at the NACA Lewis laboratory in 1947 and is described herein."

A method is derived for calculating the damping coefficients in pitch and roll for a series of triangular wings and a restricted series of sweptback wings at supersonic speeds. The elementary "supersonic source" solution of the linearized equation of motion is used to find the potential function of a line of doublets, and the flows are obtained by surface distributions of these doublet lines. The damping derivatives for triangular wings are found to be a function of the ratio of the tangent of the apex angle to the tangent of the Mach angle. As this ratio becomes equal to and greater than 1.0 for triangular wings, the damping derivatives, in pitch and in roll, become constant. The damping derivative in roll becomes equal to one-half the value calculated for an infinite rectangular wing, and the damping derivative in pitch for pitching about the apex becomes equal to 3.375 times that of an infinite rectangular wing.

"A method used by Tsien to derive similarity rules for hypersonic flows is utilized to derive Von Karman's similarity rules for transonic flows. At the lower limit of the transonic region of flow the theory yields a formula for the critical stream Mach numbers of a given family of symmetrical profiles. It is further shown that this formula can also be obtained by means of the Prandtl-Glauert small-perturbation method" (p. 83).

"A theory has been developed for resetting the blade angles of an axial-flow compressor in order to improve the performance at speeds and flows other than the design and thus extend the useful operating range of the compressor. The theory is readily applicable to the resetting of both rotor and stator blades or to the resetting of only the stator blades and is based on adjustment of the blade angles to obtain lift coefficients at which the blades will operate efficiently. Calculations were made for resetting the stator blades of the NACA eight-stage axial-flow compressor for 75 percent of design speed and a series of load coefficients ranging from 0.28 to 0.70 with rotor blades left at the design setting" (p. 425).

"A critical review of literature bearing on the autoignition and detonation-wave theories of spark-ignition engine knock and on the nature of gas vibrations associated with combustion and knock results in the conclusion that neither the autoignition theory nor the detonation-wave theory is an adequate explanation of spark-ignition engine knock. A knock theory is proposed, combining the autoignition and detonation-wave theories, which introduces the idea that the detonation wave develops in autoignited or after-burning gases, and ascribes comparatively low-pitched heavy knocks to autoignition but high-pitched pinging knocks to detonation waves with the possibility of combinations of the two types of knocks" (p. 317).

"A method is presented for calculating wing characteristics by lifting-line theory using nonlinear section lift data. Material from various sources is combined with some original work into the single complete method described. Multhopp's systems of multipliers are employed to obtain the induced angle of attack directly from the spanwise lift distribution. Equations are developed for obtaining these multipliers for any even number of spanwise stations, and values are tabulated for 10 stations along the semispan for asymmetrical, symmetrical, and antisymmetrical lift distributions" (p. 1).

From Summary: "A matrix method is presented for determining the longitudinal-stability coefficients and frequency response of an aircraft from arbitrary maneuvers. The method is devised so that it can be applied to time-history measurements of combinations of such simple quantities as angle of attack, pitching velocity, load factor, elevator angle, and hinge moment to obtain the over-all coefficients. Although the method has been devised primarily for the evaluation of stability coefficients which are of primary interest in most aircraft loads and stability studies, it can be used also, with a simple additional computation, to determine the frequency-response characteristics. The entire procedure can be applied or extended to other problems which can be expressed by linear differential equations."

"An investigation of the three important factors that determine convective heat-transfer characteristics at supersonic speeds, location boundary-layer transition, recovery factor, and heat-transfer parameter has been performed at Mach numbers from 1.49 to 1.18. The bodies of revolution that were tested had, in most cases, laminar boundary layers, and the test results have been compared with available theory. Boundary-layer transition was found to be affected by heat transfer" (p. 1301).