Homework 3

1. Consider an infinite wing with a NACA 2412 airfoil section and a chord length of 2 ft. The wing is
at an angle of attack of 4 in an airflow velocity of 50 ft/s at standard sea-level conditions. Calculate
the lift, drag and the moment about the quarter-chord per unit span. In finding the airfoil drag
coefficient, use 3.1106 as the Reynolds number.
2. Consider an NACA 2412 airfoil with a 2-m chord in an airstream with a velocity of 50 m/s at
standard sea-level conditions. If the lift per unit span is 1353 N, what is the angle of attack?
3. The question is often asked: Can an airfoil fly upside-down? To answer this, make the following
calculation. Consider a positively cambered airfoil with a zero-lift angle of -3. The lift slope is 0.1
per degree.
a) Calculate the lift coefficient at an angle of attack of 5.
b) Now imagine the same airfoil turned upside-down, but at the same 5 angle of attack as part a).
Calculate its lift coefficient.
Hint: The vertical components of the aerodynamic forces onto the two airfoils below are the
same in magnitude and opposite in direction.

c) At what angle of attack must the upside-down airfoil be set to generate the same lift as that when
it is right-side-up at 5 angle of attack?
4. Consider an airfoil at a given angle of attack, say 1. At low speeds, the minimum pressure
coefficient on the top surface of the airfoil is -0.8. What is the critical Mach number of the airfoil?