Turbine Engines An aircraft turbine engine consists of an air inlet, compressor, combustion chambers, a turbine section, and exhaust. Thrust is produced by increasing the velocity of the air flowing through the engine. Turbine engines are highly desirable aircraft powerplants. They are characterized by smooth operation and a high power-to-weight ratio, and they use readily available jet fuel. Turbine engines are classified according to the type of compressors they use. There are three types of compressors— centrifugal flow, axial flow, and centrifugal-axial flow Compression of inlet air is achieved in a centrifugal flow engine by accelerating air outward perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the machine. The axial-flow engine compresses air by a series of rotating and stationary airfoils moving the air parallel to the longitudinal axis. The centrifugal-axial flow design uses both kinds of compressors to achieve the desired compression.Turboshaft Engine The fourth common type of jet engine is the turboshaft. It delivers power to a shaft that drives something other than a propeller. The biggest difference between a turbojet and turboshaft engine is that on a urboshaft engine, most of the energy produced by the expanding gases is used to drive a turbine rather than produce thrust. Many helicopters auxiliary power units on large aircraft.Flight Instruments This chapter addresses the pitot-static system and associated instruments, the vacuum system and related instruments, gyroscopic instruments and the magnetic compass The pitot-static instruments include: * Airspeed Indictor (ASI) * Altimeter * Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) The Gyroscopic Instruments include: * Attitude Indicator or Artifical Horizon (Al or AH) * Heading Indicator (HI) * Turnand Slip Indicator (TI)Altitude Types Pilots are mainly concerned with five types of altitudes: 1. Indicated altitude—read directly from the altimeter (uncorrected) when it is set to the currentaltimetersetting. 2. True altitude—the vertical distance of the aircraft above sea level—the actual altitude. It is often expressed as feet above mean sea level (MSL). Airport, terrain, and obstacle elevations on aeronautical charts are true altitudes. 3. Absolute altitude—the vertical distance of an aircraft above the terrain, or above ground level (AGL). 4. Pressure altitude—the altitude indicated when the altimeter setting window (barometric scale) is adjusted to 29.92 "Hg. This is the altitude above the standard datum plane, whichis a theoretical plane where air pressure (corrected to 15 °C) equals 29.92 "Hg. Pressure altitude is used to compute density altitude, true altitude, true airspeed (TAS), and other performance data. 5. Density altitude—pressure altitude corrected for variations from standard temperature. When conditions are standard, pressure altitude and density altitude are the same. If the temperature is above standard, the density altitude is higher than pressure altitude. If the temperature is below standard, the density altitude is lower than pressure altitude. This is an important altitude because it is directly related to the aircraft’s performance.Fropell + The propeller is a rotating airfoil, subject to induced drag, stalls, and other aerodynamic principles that apply to any airfoil. It provides the necessary thrust to pull, or in some cases push, the aircraft through the ¢ air. The engine power is used to rotate the propeller, which in turn generates thrust very similar to the manner in which a wing producesift. * The amount of thrust produced depends on the shape of the airfoil, the angle of attack (AOA) of the propeller blade, and the | revolutions per minute (rpm) of the engine. The propeller itself is twisted so the blade angle changes from hub to tip. The greatest angle of incidence, or the highest pitch, is at the hub while the smallest angle of incidence or smallest pitch is at the tip.Airplane Stability Stability is the inherent ability of a body, after its equilibrium is disturbed, to develop forces or moments that tend to return the body to its original position. In other words, a stable airplane will tend to return to the original condition of flight if disturbed by a force such as turbulent air. This means that a stable airplane is easy to fly, however, this does not mean that a pilot can depend entirely on stability to return the airplane to the original condition. Even in the most stable airplanes, there are conditions that will require the use of airplane controls to return the airplane to the desired attitude. However, a pilot will find that a well designed airplane requires less effort to control the airplane because ofthe inherent stability. Stability is classified into three types: *Positive Stability *Neutral Stability *Negative StabilityAirplane Stability Positive Stability: Positive stability can be illustrated by a ball inside of a bowl. If the ball is displaced from its normal resting place at the bottom of the bowl, it will eventually return to its original position at the bottom of the bowl. Neutral Stability: Neutral stability can be illustrated by a ball on a flat plane. If the ball is displaced, it will come to rest at some new, neutral position and show no tendency to return to its original position. Negative Stability Negative stability is in fact instability and can be illustrated by a ballon the top of an inverted bowl. Even the slightest displacement of the ball will activate greater forces which will cause the ball to continue to move in the direction of the applied force. It should be obvious that airplanes should display positive stability, or perhaps neutral stability, but never negative stability <—_ —_— Torque Reaction: TORQUE REACTION This is based on Newton’s Law of action and reaction. Applying this law to an airplane with a propeller rotating in a clockwise direction, as seen from the rear, a force is produced which tends to roll the entire airplane about its longitudinal axis in a counterclockwise direction. To better understand this concept, consider the air through which the propeller rotates as a restraining force. This restraining force acts opposite to the direction the propeller rotates, creating a tendency for the airplane to roll to the left.