INTRODUCTION

What is Aerospace Engineering?

airtruk Aerospace Engineering is the branch of physics that treats the analysis and design of air and space vehicles. The analysis requires information about the forces, aerodynamic and inertial that act on these vehicles and the strength of their component structures.

Aerospace topics will fall into different categories of behaviour depending on velocity range (slow speed, high speed, supersonic, hypersonic), depending on size and shape of the object (large, small, complex 3D solid) and the physical properties of the fluids (dense, rarefied, viscous, inviscid) that they experience and the materials that they are constructed from. Many different situations can be analysed using a range of available theories.

The most obvious areas of interest are

  • Fluid Flow and Aerodynamics,
  • Aerospace Structures,
  • Aircraft Performance and Flight Mechanics,
  • Propulsion

The aim is to be able to predict the lift, drag, thrust and moments acting on objects or vehicles in motion, to estimate flight paths and dynamic behaviour and to validate the strength of their structural components

In the chapters of this web text we try to explain methods of analysis that can be used to predict the behaviour of various flight vehicles and components. introductory engineering tools that will help in the understanding of the fundamentals of aerospace engineering.

The SI system of units is used for data, formula and calculations in this text.

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