Definition: A means of air transportation that is propelled by an internal combustion, turboprop, or jet engine.
Nature and Use
Airplanes fly with the help of the laws of physics and engineering. They come in all shapes and sizes and serve different purposes. Some aircraft are used for training; others are used for transporting goods and freight. Military aircraft are used in waging warfare. Passenger airliners are used for the daily transportation of travelers. Although airplanes have different designs and functions, all airplanes share common traits. The fuselage, or body of the aircraft, carries people, cargo, and baggage. Attached to the fuselage are the wings, which provide the lift to carry the aircraft and its payload. To balance the airplane in flight, the tail, or empennage, is very important. The landing gear allows the airplane to operate on the earths surface. The flight controls are used to maneuver the aircraft in flight. Flaps provide additional lift and drag for takeoffs and landings
Fuselage
The primary job of the fuselage is to provide space for the flight crew and passengers. The attachment of the wings and other load-bearing structures is also an important function of the fuselage.
Wings
Wings are as varied as other parts of the airplane. They come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the aircrafts speed and weight requirements. A slower airplane may have a rectangular wing or a tapered wing. A rectangular wing is one in which the chord line, or cross section, of the wing, remains constant from the root of the wing near the body of the aircraft to the wingtip. A tapered wing is one that becomes narrower toward the tip. High-speed aircraft, such as jet transports, airliners, or fighter aircraft, have swept-wing designs. The purpose of the swept wing is to allow the airplane to fly at higher airspeeds.
Empennage
The empennage is the tail structure of the aircraft, which includes the vertical stabilizer and rudder, along with the horizontal stabilizers and elevator. These essential components provide stability for the airplane in flight.
Landing Gear
In order to move around on the earths surface, all aircraft have landing gear. The most common arrangement of the landing gear is the tricycle landing gear, in which the aircraft has two main wheels that extend from either the wing or the fuselage and a third wheel that extends from the nose of the aircraft.
Flight Controls
The flight control system controls the aircraft in flight and comprises the devices that command movement of the aircraft around all three axes: longitudinal, lateral, and vertical. The elevator controls the airplanes longitudinal movement about its lateral axis. In other words, it causes the airplanes nose to go up or down. Finally, the rudder controls the airplane about the vertical axis.
Flaps
Airplanes have flaps for both takeoffs and landings. Located on the inboard portion of the wing at the rear, flaps change the shape of the wing in a way that creates both lift and drag. The first half of travel, after takeoff, creates more lift than drag, whereas the last half of travel, before landing, creates more drag without a noticeable increase in lift.
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The Power Plant
The internal combustion engine powers many of todays light airplanes. The most popular arrangement of the engine is in the horizontally opposed configuration. The engine is air-cooled and typically arranged in a flat four- or six-cylinder configuration, allowing the best cooling for all of the cylinders.
"Aero" is a Greek prefix signifying air. Air is made up of a mixture of gasses, and thus is itself a gas. However, in all the reading about aeronautics you have done air is referred to as a fluid. For instance, air obeys the laws of fluid dynamics. The technical definition of a fluid states that a fluid is any substance that flows. Obviously water flows, but so does air and so do powders! So, technically speaking, air and powders are fluids. Most important to our study of aeronautics is the fact that air obeys the physical laws of fluids.
Exercises
Vocabulary
1. Memorize the following vocabulary units.
internal combustion engine, turboprop, jet engine, passenger airliner, military aircraft, common traits, cargo, baggage, empennage, landing gear, flap, lift, drag, takeoff, landing, crew, load-bearing structure, fuselage, rectangular wing, tapered wing, root, wingtip, swept-wing design, vertical stabilizer, rudder, horizontal stabilizer, elevator, tricycle landing gear, longitudinal axis, lateral axis, vertical axis, fluid dynamics
2. Transcribe the words:
combustion, turboprop, fuselage, cargo, baggage, axis, empennage, crew, rectangular, chord, stabilizer, rudder, elevator, vertical, structure, dynamics
3. Match the words from the texts (1-5) with their synonyms (A-E):
| 1 | transportation | A | airfoil |
| 2 | tail | B | shipment |
| 3 | fuselage | C | fin |
| 4 | stabilizer | D | airframe |
| 5 | wing | E | empennage |
4. Explain in English and then translate the expressions into Russian:
military aircraft, passenger airliners, flight controls, flap, fuselage, rectangular wing, swept wing, empennage, tricycle landing gear
5. Match the words from the texts (1-10) with the definitions (A-J):
| 1 | cargo | A | the longitudinal retarding force exerted by air or other fluid surrounding a moving object |
| 2 | fuselage | B | the width of an aerofoil from leading to trailing edge |
| 3 | empennage | C | goods carried on a ship, aircraft, or motor vehicle |
| 4 | drag | D | the main body of an aircraft |
| 5 | chord | E | stabilizing surfaces at the tail of an aircraft |
| 6 | wingtip | F | a vertical aerofoil pivoted from the tailplane of an aircraft to control movement about the vertical axis |
| 7 | rudder | G | the tip of the wing of an aircraft |
| 8 | elevator | H | the undercarriage of an aircraft |
| 9 | landing gear | I | an imaginary line about which a body rotates |
| 10 | axis | J | a hinged flap on the tailplane of an aircraft, used to control the motion of the aircraft about its lateral axis |
6. Find in the texts the English equivalents for the words and expressions:
(1) airfoil, (2) airframe, (3) thrust, (4) end edge, (5)
arrow wing, (6) tail assembly, (7) vertical tail surfaces, (8) horizontal tail surfaces, (9) altitude control, (10) landing device, (11) aileron, (12) engine
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7. Answer the following questions. Begin your answers with such introductory phrases as: as far as I know; as far as I remember; to my mind; certainly; it's hard to tell; probably; of course; if I am not mistaken, etc.
1) What common traits do all airplanes share?
2) What is the difference between a rectangular wing and a tapered one?
3) What does the empennage consist from?
4) What is the most common arrangement of the landing gear?
5) What is air from the aeronautics point of view?
Speaking
Give a 5-minute presentation on one of the following topics. Use the Extemporaneous Method of Delivery. Remember that wordless communication acts to qualify the words. What the non-verbal elements express very efficiently is the emotional side of the message.
1.All airplanes share common traits though they have different designs and functions.
2. There are many variants of wings.
3. Power plant
4. Air
5. There are many different types of airplanes.
| Non-Verbal Means of Communication ● Body language is habitual, acquired by human beings together with words. ● Gesture, gesticulation and facial movements of expression usually accompany the act of talking and serve to emphasize the content of what is said. ● We shouldnt rely heavily upon the notes. Reading from the script reduces the opportunity of eye contact with the audience. We should look straight into the listeners eyes and register his reaction. ● Public speech is a performance. Its success is determined by coordination of verbal and non-verbal means of communication. |
Writing
Compose a written report about the airplane parts. Use this visual to describe the functions of airplane parts. Organize your material into a definite structure.
Appendix 1
Presentation
Useful language
Welcoming the audience 
Good morning/ afternoon, ladies and gentlemen
Hello/ Hi, everyone
First of all let me thank you all for coming here, today.
I/m happy/ delighted to see you.
Introducing yourself
Let me introduce myself, Im
For those who don/t know me, my name is
As you probably know, Im
Saying what your topic is
As you can see on the screen, our topic today is
Todays topic is
The subject of my presentation is
Lets start with my presentation.
I would like to begin by
Involving the audience
OK, what is..?
How many of you have heard of..?
Id like us to focus our attention on ..
Id like you to think about
Emphasizing
I just like to highlight
Id like to stress the importance of
What is interesting / important here is ..
It is important to notice that
Changing subject
OK, Ill move on to
Turning now to
Now Ill show you
Lets now turn to
Let me then turn to the third and final option
Commenting
I think thats interesting because
I think what this means is
The significance of this is
As we can see
In addition,
Summing up
Let me just go over the key points again.
To sum up
We can conclude that
Let me summarize what weve looked at.
Ill briefly summarize the main issues.
Id like to summarize.
So, were now at the end of our presentation. Lets
So, that brings me to the end of my presentation.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for your attention.
Referring to visuals
Lets look at the chart
Let me draw your attention to the table
Examples:
1) So, lets start then. I will start by telling you what the greenhouse effect is.
2) Firstly, Ill give the background to the project.
3) Then, Ill tell you about the present situation.
4) My first point will be to show you the structure of the department.
5) My second point will be suggestions for greater efficiency.
6) So, were now at the end of our presentation.
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Expressing your opinion
| , ... | Look, I'll tell you what... |
| , ... | It's like this. You see... |
| , ... | I'll start by saying that... |
| ... | As I see it... |
| ... | In my opinion... |
| ... | As far as I can see... |
| ... ... | On the one hand... on the other... For one thing... for another... |
| , ... | It's common knowledge that... |
| ... | All things considered... |
| ... | All other things being equal... |
| , ... | It must be admitted that... |
| ... | I should (I'd) like to make it clear that... |
| , ... | There's much truth in what you're saying, yet... |
| , ... | It is as well to remember that... |
| , ... | There's no denying that... |
| , , , , ... | What I'm going to say may seem not so relevant, yet... |
| , ... | I see your point, but... |
| ... | In conclusion I'd like to say that... |
| . | This is the way I look at it. This is the way I see it. |
Appendix 2
Supplementary reading
