High-speed Aircraft
This report details the designs of high-speed aircraft from various countries from 1931 on, with special emphasis on the United States and Germany.
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This report details the designs of high-speed aircraft from various countries from 1931 on, with special emphasis on the United States and Germany.
The purpose of this report is to make the complicated processes on the direct-lift propeller amenable to analysis and observation. This is accomplished by placing the physical phenomena, starting with the most elementary process, in the foreground, while limiting the mathematical treatment to the most essential in view of the fundamental defects of the theorems. Comparison with model experiments supplements and corroborates the theoretical results.
Aerodynamic considerations led us, not long ago, to investigate a device which seemed to promise a contribution to the problem of reducing the landing speed of an airplane. We have subsequently learned that similar devices had already been proposed and investigated by others, but it seems advisable, nevertheless, to report our results. The problem is to create, in landing, a region of turbulence on the lower side of the wing near the trailing edge by some obstacle to the air flow. The devices tested by us consisted of flaps of varying chord and position, the chord s being equal to the distance of the pivot from the trailing edge.
As a result of previous reports, it was endeavored to obtain, along with the truest possible comprehension of the course of thrust, a complete, simple and clear formula for the whole take-off distance up to a certain altitude, which shall give the correct relative weight to all the factors.
The present report concerns the development of general propeller performance and r.p.m. curves which, combined with the general curve of the power required for level flight, presents a complete picture of the performance.
This report presents the results of the first investigation of the physical principle of preventing the streamline separation by removing the boundary layer. It was aeronautical, in that it dealt with airfoils, but the results are of a very general application.
This report presents a review of German light airplane construction. Some of the topics discussed include: engines, fuselages, wings, landing gear, and other mechanical parts.
At the suggestion of Professor Betz, the following device was tested with the object of reducing the autorotational speed of airplane wings. The model of a normal wing with the Gottigen profile 420, 1 meter span and 0.2 meter chord was provided with a pair of symmetrical slots on the suction side, connected with each other inside the wing. The arrangement of the testing equipment and models are given and the effect of the slots can be seen in the experimental curves that are included.
The purpose of this section is to survey the present status of scientific knowledge of the causes which produce drag, in order, if possible, to establish the relation between the individual results and the actual phenomena which demonstrate the fundamental importance of surface conditions. A discussion of the boundary layer is followed by: relations between frictional and form drag, application to profile-drag measurements, and different kinds of roughness. High-pressure wind tunnel tests are discussed along with roughness and maximum lift.
The present report contains the results thus far obtained and is intended to form the basis of further tests on using the momentum method. The method of testing is presented in detail and the photographs taken during these tests are interpreted.
According to one of the main propositions of the boundary layer theory the scarcely noticeable boundary layer may, under certain conditions, have a decisive influence on the form of the external flow by causing it to separate from the wing surface. These phenomena are known to be caused by a kind of stagnation of the boundary layer at the point of separation. The present report deals with similar phenomena. It is important to note that usually the cause (external interference) directly affects only the layer close to the wall, while its indirect effect extends to a large portion of the external flow.
Serpentinization - the aqueous alteration of ultramafic rocks - typically imparts a highly reducing and alkaline character to the reacting fluids. In turn, these can influence the speciation and potential for metabolism of one-carbon compounds in the system. We examined the aqueous geochemistry and assessed the biological potential of one-carbon compounds in the subsurface of the McLaughlin Natural Reserve (Coast Range Ophiolite, California, USA). Fluids from wells sunk at depths of 25-90 meters have pH values ranging from 9.7 to 11.5 and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC concentrations) generally below 60 micromolar. Methane is present at concentrations up to 1.3 millimolar (approximately one-atmosphere saturation), and hydrogen concentrations are below 15 nanomolar, suggesting active consumption of H2 and production of CH4. However, methane production from CO2 is thermodynamically unfavorable under these conditions. Additionally, the speciation of DIC predominantly into carbonate at these high pH values creates a problem of carbon availability for any organisms that require CO2 (or bicarbonate) for catabolism or anabolism. A potential alternative is carbon monoxide, which is present in these waters at concentrations 2000-fold higher than equilibrium with atmospheric CO. CO is utilized in a variety of metabolisms, including methanogenesis, and bioavailability is not adversely affected by pH-dependent speciation (as for DIC). Methanogenesis from CO under in situ conditions is thermodynamically favorable and would satisfy biological energy requirements with respect to both Gibbs Energy yield and power.
Metabolic potential and activity associated with hydrogen and carbon monoxide were characterized in fluids sampled from the the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory (CROMO). CROMO consists of two clusters of science-dedicated wells drilled to varying depths up to 35m in the actively serpentinizing, Jurassic-age Coast Range Ophiolite of Northern California, along with a suite of pre-existing monitoring wells at the same site. Consistent with the fluid chemistry observed in other serpentinizing systems, CROMO fluids are highly alkaline, with pH up to 12.5, high in methane, with concentrations up 1600 micromolar, and low in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), with concentrations of 10's to 100's of micromolar. CROMO is conspicuous for fluid H2 concentrations that are consistently sub-micromolar, orders of magnitude lower than is typical of other systems. However, higher H2 concentrations (10's -100's of micromolar) at an earlier stage of fluid chemical evolution are predicted by, or consistent with: thermodynamic models for fluid chemistry based on parent rock composition equivalent to local peridotite and with water:rock ratio constrained by observed pH; the presence of magnetite at several wt% in CROMO drill cores; and concentrations of formate and carbon monoxide that would require elevated H2 if formed in equilibrium with H2 and DIC. Calculated Gibbs energy changes for reaction of H2 and CO in each of several metabolisms, across the range of fluid composition encompassed by the CROMO wells, range from bioenergetically feasible (capable of driving ATP synthesis) to thermodynamically unfavorable. Active consumption relative to killed controls was observed for both CO and H2 during incubation of fluids from the pre-existing monitoring wells; in incubations of freshly cored solids, consumption was only observed in one sample set (corresponding to the lowest pH) out of three. The specific metabolisms by which H2 and CO are consumed remain to be determined.
Carbon and other volatiles are transported from Earth’s surface into the mantle at subduction margins. The efficiency of this transfer has profound implications for the nature and scale of geochemical heterogeneities in Earth’s deep (mantle) and shallow (crustal) reservoirs, as well as Earth’s oxidation state. However, the proportion of volatiles released in the forearc and backarc are not well constrained compared to fluxes from the volcanic front. Here, we use helium and carbon isotope data from deeply sourced springs along two cross-arc transects to show that ~91% of carbon released from the slab/mantle beneath the Costa Rica forearc is sequestered within the crust by calcite deposition, and an additional ~3% is incorporated into biomass through microbial chemolithoautotrophy. We estimate that ~1.2 × 10(exp 8) to 1.3 × 10(exp 10) mol CO2/yr are released from the slab beneath the forearc, resulting in up to ~19% less carbon being transferred to Earth’s deep mantle than previously estimated.
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