Wing Types

• The design of a wing varies based on the type of the wing. Some of the common wing types include delta wing, variable geometry wing, tapered wing, straight wing and swept-back wing. A delta wing is a thin triangular wing. A variable geometry wing is special because its wing geometry changes based on the flying speed by swinging the wings forward and backward. A tapered wing is perpendicular to the fuselage, that is the central body of the aircraft, and its width decreases towards the tip. Straight wings are used in low-speed planes. They are also perpendicular to the fuselage and are of consistent width. Swept-back wings are arrow shaped, coming to a point behind the plane.
  
  

Common Terms

• Some commonly used terms in wing geometry are: wing area, wing span, aspect ratio and mean aerodynamic chord. Wing area is the trapezoidal portion of the wing projected into the center line. But the leading and trailing edge extensions are included in this area only for some planes. Wing span is the linear distance between the extremes of an airfoil, or the distance from the tip of one of a pair of wings to that of the other. Aspect ratio is an indicator of the performance of the wing. It is calculated as the square of span divided by wing area. Mean aerodynamic chord is used in aerodynamic computations. It is the average length of the chord, or the distance measured from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the wing.
  
  

Definitions

• The front of the wing is called the leading edge and back of the wing is called the trailing edge. The angle that the wing makes with the local horizontal is called the dihedral angle. The dihedral angle determines the stability of the aircraft while it is in flight. A negative dihedral angle is called anhedral.
  
  

Software Implementation

• Many software applications have been developed to implement wing geometry. Some of the applications are DesignFoil and Sub2D. Many of them use Java as the programming language for software development.