Aerodynamics, from Greek ??? aer (air) + d??a???

(dynamics), is a branch of fluid

dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it intera
cts with a solid object, such as an airplane wing. Aerodynamics is a sub-field o
f fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, and many aspects of aerodynamics theory are c
ommon to these fields. The term aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas
dynamics, with the difference being that "gas dynamics" applies to the study of
the motion of all gases, not limited to air. Formal aerodynamics study in the m
odern sense began in the eighteenth century, although observations of fundamenta
l concepts such as aerodynamic drag have been recorded much earlier. Most of the
early efforts in aerodynamics worked towards achieving heavier-than-air flight,
which was first demonstrated by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903. Since then,
the use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximations,
wind tunnel experimentation, and computer simulations has formed the scientific
basis for ongoing developments in heavier-than-air flight and a number of other
technologies. Recent work in aerodynamics has focused on issues related to comp
ressible flow, turbulence, and boundary layers and has become increasingly compu
tational in nature.
Contents [hide]
1
History
2
Fundamental concepts
2.1
Flow classification
2.2
Continuum assumption
2.3
Conservation laws
3
Branches of aerodynamics
3.1
Incompressible aerodynamics
3.1.1 Subsonic flow
3.2
Compressible aerodynamics
3.2.1 Transonic flow
3.2.2 Supersonic flow
3.2.3 Hypersonic flow
4
Associated terminology
4.1
Boundary layers
4.2
Turbulence
5
Aerodynamics in other fields
6
See also
7
References
8
Further reading
9
External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of aerodynamics
Modern aerodynamics only dates back to the seventeenth century, but aerodynamic
forces have been harnessed by humans for thousands of years in sailboats and win
dmills,[1] and images and stories of flight appear throughout recorded history,[
2] such as the Ancient Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus.[3] Fundamental conce
pts of continuum, drag, and pressure gradients appear in the work of Aristotle a
nd Archimedes.[4]
In 1726, Sir Isaac Newton became the first person to develop a theory of air res
istance,[5] making him one of the first aerodynamicists. Dutch-Swiss mathematici
an Daniel Bernoulli followed in 1738 with Hydrodynamica in which he described a
fundamental relationship between pressure, density, and flow velocity for incomp
ressible flow known today as Bernoulli's principle, which provides one method fo
r calculating aerodynamic lift.[6] In 1757, Leonhard Euler published the more ge
neral Euler equations which could be applied to both compressible and incompress
ible flows. The Euler equations were extended to incorporate the effects of visc
osity in the first half of the 1800s, resulting in the Navier-Stokes equations.[
7][8] The Navier-Stokes equations are the most general governing equations of fl
uid flow and are difficult to solve.
A replica of the Wright brothers' wind tunnel is on display at the Virginia Air
and Space Center. Wind tunnels were key in the development and validation of the

laws of aerodynamics.
In 1799, Sir George Cayley became the first person to identify the four aerodyna
mic forces of flight (weight, lift, drag, and thrust), as well as the relationsh
ips between them,[9][10] outlining the work towards achieving heavier-than-air f
light for the next century. In 1871, Francis Herbert Wenham constructed the firs
t wind tunnel, allowing precise measurements of aerodynamic forces. Drag theorie
s were developed by Jean le Rond d'Alembert,[11] Gustav Kirchhoff,[12] and Lord
Rayleigh.[13] In 1889, Charles Renard, a French aeronautical engineer, became th
e first person to reasonably predict the power needed for sustained flight.[14]
Otto Lilienthal, the first person to become highly successful with glider flight
s, was also the first to propose thin, curved airfoils that would produce high l
ift and low drag. Building on these developments as well as research carried out
in their own wind tunnel, the Wright brothers flew the first powered airplane o
n December 17, 1903.
During the time of the first flights, Frederick W. Lanchester,[15] Martin Wilhel
m Kutta, and Nikolai Zhukovsky independently created theories that connected cir
culation of a fluid flow to lift. Kutta and Zhukovsky went on to develop a two-d
imensional wing theory. Expanding upon the work of Lanchester, Ludwig Prandtl is
credited with developing the mathematics[16] behind thin-airfoil and lifting-li
ne theories as well as work with boundary layers.
As aircraft speed increased, designers began to encounter challenges associated
with air compressibility at speeds near or greater than the speed of sound. The
differences in air flows under these conditions led to problems in aircraft cont
rol, increased drag due to shock waves, and structural dangers due to aeroelasti
c flutter. The ratio of the flow speed to the speed of sound was named the Mach
number after Ernst Mach who was one of the first to investigate the properties o
f supersonic flow. William John Macquorn Rankine and Pierre Henri Hugoniot indep
endently developed the theory for flow properties before and after a shock wave,
while Jakob Ackeret led the initial work on calculating the lift and drag of su
personic airfoils.[17] Theodore von Krmn and Hugh Latimer Dryden introduced the te
rm transonic to describe flow speeds around Mach 1 where drag increases rapidly.
This rapid increase in drag led aerodynamicists and aviators to disagree on whe
ther supersonic flight was achievable until the sound barrier was broken for the
first time in 1947 using the Bell X-1 aircraft.
By the time the sound barrier was broken, much of the subsonic and low supersoni
c aerodynamics knowledge had matured. The Cold War fueled an ever-evolving line
of high performance aircraft. Computational fluid dynamics began as an effort to
solve for flow properties around complex objects and has rapidly grown to the p
oint where entire aircraft can be designed using a computer, with wind-tunnel te
sts followed by flight tests to confirm the computer predictions. Knowledge of s
upersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics has also matured since the 1960s, and the
goals of aerodynamicists have shifted from understanding the behavior of fluid f
low to understanding how to engineer a vehicle to interact appropriately with th
e fluid flow. Designing aircraft for supersonic and hypersonic conditions, as we
ll as the desire to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of current aircraft and p
ropulsion systems, continues to fuel new research in aerodynamics, while work co
ntinues to be done on important problems in basic aerodynamic theory related to
flow turbulence and the existence and uniqueness of analytical solutions to the
Navier-Stokes equations.
Fundamental concepts[edit]
Forces of flight on an airfoil
Understanding the motion of air around an object (often called a flow field) ena
bles the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. In many aerodyn
amics problems, the forces of interest are the fundamental forces of flight: lif
t, drag, thrust, and weight. Of these, lift and drag are aerodynamic forces, i.e
. forces due to air flow over a solid body. Calculation of these quantities is o
ften founded upon the assumption that the flow field behaves as a continuum. Con
tinuum flow fields are characterized by properties such as flow velocity, pressu
re, density, and temperature, which may be functions of spatial position and tim

e. These properties may be directly or indirectly measured in aerodynamics exper

iments or calculated from equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and
energy in air flows. Density, flow velocity, and an additional property, viscosi
ty, are used to classify flow fields.
Flow classification[edit]
Flow velocity is used to classify flows according to speed regime. Subsonic flow
s are flow fields in which the air speed field is always below the local speed o
f sound. Transonic flows include both regions of subsonic flow and regions in wh
ich the local flow speed is greater than the local speed of sound. Supersonic fl
ows are defined to be flows in which the flow speed is greater than the speed of
sound everywhere. A fourth classification, hypersonic flow, refers to flows whe
re the flow speed is much greater than the speed of sound. Aerodynamicists disag
ree on the precise definition of hypersonic flow.
Compressibility refers to whether or not the flow in a problem can have a varyin
g density. Subsonic flows are often assumed to be incompressible, i.e. the densi
ty is assumed to be constant. Transonic and supersonic flows are compressible, a
nd neglecting the changes in density in these flow fields will yield inaccurate
results when performing calculations.
Viscosity is associated with the frictional forces in a flow. In some flow field
s, viscous effects are very small, and approximate solutions may safely neglect
viscous effects. These approximations are called inviscid flows. Flows for which
viscosity is not neglected are called viscous flows. Finally, aerodynamic probl
ems may also be classified by the flow environment. External aerodynamics is the
study of flow around solid objects of various shapes (e.g. around an airplane w
ing), while internal aerodynamics is the study of flow through passages inside s
olid objects (e.g. through a jet engine).