Tutor Platform
Study note

Get a short, cited explanation of this element written from the FAA handbooks: the core idea, the numbers that matter, common test traps, and a quick self-check.

Sign in to generate a study note

From the FAA library

  • Chapter 5: Aerodynamics of Flight › Axes of an Aircraft

    Whenever an aircraft changes its flight attitude or position in flight, it rotates about one or more of the three axes. [Figure 5-18] The aircraft’s motion about its longitudinal axis resembles the roll of a ship from side ... side. In fact, the names used to describe the motion about an aircraft’s three axes were originally nautical terms. They have been adapted to aeronautical terminology due to the similarity of motion of aircraft and seagoing ships. The motion…

  • Chapter 5: Aerodynamics of Flight › Aircraft Design Characteristics

    Aircraft Design Characteristics Each aircraft handles somewhat differently because each resists or responds to control pressures in its own way. For example, a training aircraft is quick to respond to control applications, while a transport aircraft feels heavy ... controls and responds to control pressures more slowly. These features can be designed into an aircraft to facilitate the particular purpose of the aircraft by considering certain stability and maneuvering requirements. The following discussion summarizes the more important aspects…

  • Chapter 11: Aircraft Performance › Performance › Straight-and-Level Flight

    Level Flight All of the principal components of flight performance involve steady-state flight conditions and equilibrium of the aircraft. For the aircraft to remain in steady, level flight, equilibrium must be obtained by a lift equal to the aircraft ... weight and a powerplant thrust equal to the aircraft drag. Thus, the aircraft drag defines the thrust required to maintain steady, level flight. As presented in Chapter 4, Aerodynamics of Flight, all parts of an aircraft contribute to the drag…

  • Chapter 3: Aircraft Construction › Aircraft Design, Certification, and Airworthiness › A Note About Light Sport Aircraft

    Note About Light Sport Aircraft Light sport aircraft are not designed according to FAA airworthiness standards. Instead, they are designed to a consensus of standards agreed upon in the aviation industry. The FAA has agreed the consensus of standards ... acceptable as the design criteria for these aircraft. Light sport aircraft do not necessarily have individually type certificated engines and propellers. Instead, a TC is issued to the aircraft as a whole. It includes the airframe, engine, and propeller. Aircraft…

  • Chapter 1: Introduction To Flying › Aircraft Classifications and Ultralight Vehicles

    Rotorcraft—a heavier-than-air aircraft that depends principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by one or more rotors. -Gyroplane—a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-driven, except for Initial starting, but are made ... rotorcraft that, for its horizontal motion, depends principally on its engine-driven rotors. • Weight-shift-control—a powered aircraft with a framed pivoting wing and a fuselage controllable only in pitch and roll by the pilot's ability to change…

  • Chapter 3: Aircraft Construction › Lift and Basic Aerodynamics

    Weight pulls the aircraft downward because of the force of gravity. It opposes lift and acts vertically downward through the aircraft’s center of gravity (CG). Lift opposes the downward force of weight, is produced by the dynamic effect ... wing, and acts perpendicular to the flight path through the wing’s center of lift (CL). An aircraft moves in three dimensions and is controlled by moving it about one or more of its axes. The longitudinal, or roll, axis…