ALBERT

Description: Report presents the results of an investigation of the general aerodynamic characteristics of the NACA 23012 and 23021 airfoils, each equipped with a 0.20c external flap of NACA 23012 section. The tests were made in the NACA 7 by 10-foot and variable-density wind tunnels and covered a range of Reynolds numbers that included values corresponding to those for landing conditions of a wide range of airplanes. Besides a determination of the variation of lift and drag characteristics with position of the flap relative to the main airfoil, complete aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil-flap combination with a flap hinge axis selected to give small hinge moments were measured in the two tunnels. Some measurements of air loads on the flap itself in the presence of the wing were made in the 7 by 10-foot wind tunnel.

Description: The investigation of wind-tunnel turbulence, conducted at the National Bureau of Standards with the cooperation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, has been extended to include a new variable, namely, the scale of the turbulence. This report presents the results of a study of this new variable together with the intensity of the turbulence, and the effect of both on the critical Reynolds number of spheres.

Description: Fuel was injected from different type of injection nozzles into the combustion chamber of the NACA combustion apparatus, operated as a compression-ignition engine. High speed motion pictures were taken of the fuel sprays and combustion. Single-orifice nozzles of 0.008, 0.020, and 0.040 inch diameter, and multiorifice nozzles having 2, 6, and 16 orifices were tested. Nozzles having impinging jets and slit orifices were also included. The photographs indicate that the rate of vapor diffusion from the spray is comparatively slow and that this slow rate of diffusion for combustion chambers with little or no air flow prevents the compression-ignition engine from giving the high performance inherent in the high compression ratios. The sprays from the multiorifice nozzles destroyed the air movement to a greater extent than did those from single orifice nozzles. It is concluded that high performance cannot be realized until the methods of distributing the fuel are improved by means of the injection-nozzle design, air flow, or both.

Description: Bending tests were made of two circular cylinders of corrugated aluminum-alloy sheet. In each test failure occurred by bending of the corrugations in a plane normal to the skin. It was found, after analysis of the effect of short end bays, that the computed stress on the extreme fiber of a corrugated cylinder is in excess of that for a flat panel of the same basic pattern and panel length tested as a pin-ended column. It is concluded that this increased strength was due to the effects of curvature of the pitch line. It is also concluded from the tests that light bulkheads closely spaced strengthen corrugated cylinders very materially.

Description: Discussed here are results already achieved with sonic altimeters in light of the theoretical possibilities of such instruments. From the information gained in this investigation, a procedure is outlined to determine whether or not a further development program is justified by the value of the sonic altimeter as an aircraft instrument. The information available in the literature is reviewed and condensed into a summary of sonic altimeter developments. Various methods of receiving the echo and timing the interval between the signal and the echo are considered. A theoretical discussion is given of sonic altimeter errors due to uncertainties in timing, variations in sound velocity, aircraft speed, location of the sending and receiving units, and inclinations of the flight path with respect to the ground surface. Plots are included which summarize the results in each case. An analysis is given of the effect of an inclined flight path on the frequency of the echo. A brief study of the acoustical phases of the sonic altimeter problem is carried through. The results of this analysis are used to predict approximately the maximum operating altitudes of a reasonably designed sonic altimeter under very good and very bad conditions. A final comparison is made between the estimated and experimental maximum operating altitudes which shows good agreement where quantitative information is available.

Description: A series of tests was made in which the column strength of 17ST tubing was increased as much as 50 percent by prestressing the tubing to 40,000 pounds per square inch in compression under conditions of support that prevented column failure at this stress. This prestressing achieves it's beneficial effects entirely by improving the compressive properties of the material, principally the proportional limit.

Description: Wind-tunnel and flight tests have been made of a Fairchild 22 airplane equipped with a wing having external-airfoil flaps that also perform the function of ailerons. Lift, drag, and pitching-moment coefficients of the airplane with several flap settings, and the rolling- and yawing-moment coefficients with the flaps deflected as ailerons were measured in the full-scale tunnel with the horizontal tail surfaces and propeller removed. The effect of the flaps on the low speed and on the take-off and landing characteristics, the effectiveness of flaps when used as ailerons, and the forces required to operate them as ailerons were determined in flight. The wind-tunnel tests showed that the flaps increased the maximum lift coefficient of the airplane from 1.51 with the flap in the minimum drag position to 2.12 with the flap in the minimum drag position to 2.12 with the flap deflected 30 degrees. In the flight tests the minimum speed decreased from 46.8 miles per hour with the flaps up to 41.3 miles per hour with the flaps deflected. The required take-off run to attain a height of 50 feet was reduced from 820 to 750 feet and the landing run from a height of 50 feet was reduced from 930 to 480 feet. The flaps for this installation gave lateral control that was not entirely satisfactory. Their rolling action was good but the adverse yaw resulting from their use was greater than is considerable, and the stick forces required to operate them increased too rapidly with speed.

Description: The N.A.C.A. combustion apparatus was altered to operate as a fuel-injection, spark-ignition engine, and a preliminary study was made of the combustion of gasoline-air mixtures at various air-fuel ratios. Air-fuel ratios ranging from 10 to 21.6 were investigated. Records from an optical indicator and films from a high-speed motion-picture camera were the chief sources of data. Schlieren photography was used for an additional study. The results show that the altered combustion apparatus has characteristics similar to those of a conventional spark-ignition engine and should be useful in studying phenomena in spark-ignition engines. The photographs show the flame front to be irregularly shaped rather than uniformly curved. With a theoretically correct mixture the reaction, as indicated by the photographs, is not completed in the flame front but continues for some time after the combustion front has traversed the mixture.

Description: Experimental and analytical studies were made of solid and hollow deep rectangular beams to study their lateral instability under various conditions of loading and restraint. The tests were made on bars and tubes of 17ST aluminum alloy. Failure by lateral buckling occurred only in tests on the solid beams. It was found that, within the elastic range, the test results were in agreement with the classical theory for the lateral buckling of deep beams as given by Prandtl, Mitchell, and Timoshenko. The tests were extended to the inelastic range, where it was found that the substitution for Young's modulus of an average modulus of elasticity derived from the stress-strain curve made it possible to predict instability at high stresses.