The Theory of Aircraft Performance: The Simplification of the Physical Problems by the Introduction of Dimensional Methods

Abstract

IT has been the practice at the official Air Ministry Testing Establishments at Martlesham and Felixstowe to issue with each complete performance report an analytical picture of the performance. This picture is commonly called “Figure 4” because it appeared as Fig. 4 of R. & M. 1140. It is reproduced in Fig. 1. Its physical significance is by no means apparent, and to the practical engineer who appreciates physical significance mainly through his visual imagination it must sometimes have been more mystifying than simplifying. But, as is shown in what follows, the physical significance can be explained naturally and elegantly in terms of the “unit plane” of unit size and wing loading.

Citation

Hutchinson, J.L. (1932), "The Theory of Aircraft Performance: The Simplification of the Physical Problems by the Introduction of Dimensional Methods", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 4 No. 6, pp. 139-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb029554