2.2: Parts of the aircraft

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截屏2022-01-10 下午8.28.16.png
Figure 2.8: Parts of an aircraft.

Before going into the fundamentals of atmospheric flight, it is interesting to identify the fundamental elements of the aircraft². As pointed out before, there are several configurations. The focus will be on commercial airplanes flying in high subsonic regimes, the most common ones. Figure 2.8 shows the main parts of a typical commercial aircraft.

The central body of the airplane, which hosts the crew and the payload (passengers, luggage, and cargo), is the fuselage. The wing is the main contributor to lift force. The surfaces situated at the tail or empennage of the aircraft are referred to as horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer. The engine is typically located under the wing protected by the so-called gondolas (some configurations with three engines locate one engine in the tail).

2. Again, in the sense of a fixed-wing aircraft provided with a power plant.