MAIN PARTS OF THE AIRPLANE
учебно-методический материал по английскому языку (11 класс)

MAIN PARTS OF THE AIRPLANE

Before reading the text answer the question: What parts of the airplane do you know?

Study the vocabulary

• airframe — планер самолета
• powerplant — силовая установка
• cockpit — кабина
• landing gear — шасси
• tаil unit — хвостовое оперение
• instrument panel — приборная доска
• structural body — несущая конструкция
• cargo — груз
• engine mounts — моторамы двигателя
• chord of a wing — хорда крыла
• tip of the leading edge — законцовка передней кромки крыла
• tip of the trailing edge — законцовка задней кромки крыла
• reference plane — опорная плоскость
• winglets — концевые «крылышки»
• induced drag — лобовое сопротивление самолета в результате развиваемой подъемной силы
• resistance — сопротивление
• viscosity — вязкость воздуха
• struts — стойки шасси
• bracings — расчалки шасси
• shock absorbers — амортизационные стойки
• fin — вертикальный стабилизатор

Read the text and answer the questions after it.            

All airplanes consist of two main parts — airframe and powerplant. The airframe consists of cockpit, fuselage, wings, landing gear and tail unit. The powerplant consists of one or several jet engines.

The cockpit houses the pilots, instrument panel and forward-looking, or weather, radar. The main structural body of all airplanes is the fuselage, which houses passengers and cargo. To the fuselage are attached wings, engine mounts, tail unit and landing gear.

Wings are structural parts supporting the airplane in the air by developing lift. Lift can be calculated as the difference of pressures below the wing and above the wing. The angle between the chord of a wing and the direction of the flow of air is called the angle of attack. The wing chord, or chord plane, is the reference plane from the tip of the leading edge to the tip of the trailing edge of the wing. Small, nearly vertical aerodynamic surfaces mounted at the tips of airplane wings are called winglets. Winglets produce large side forces even at low angles of attack, which, combined with the perpendicular local flow, provide a forward thrust component. This reduces the airplane induced drag, that is that part of the drag, induced by the lift. Induced drag is the resistance which would be encountered if the air had no viscosity.

Landing gear are those components of the airplane that support and provide mobility on land, or any surface. The landing gear consist of wheels, struts, bracing, shock absorbers and other associated devices. Landing gear notion also includes all supporting components, such as tail wheel, nose wheel and others.    

Tail unit is the combination of stabilizing and controlling surfaces, situated     at the rear of the airplane. The vertical stabilizing surface is called the fin, the     horizontal stabilizing surface is called the horizontal stabilizer.

Ex. 1. Answer the questions.

1. What is the basic structure of the aircraft?
2. What are the components of the airframe?
3. Where is the forward-looking radar located?
4. What components are attached to the fuselage?
5. How are wings defined? Why do wings develop lift?
6. What is the angle of attack?
7. How is the wing chord defined?
8. What are winglets for?
9. What is drag?
10. What parts does landing gear consist of?

Ex. 2. Match the English words and word combinations with their Russian equivalents.

Ex. 3. Match the beginning of the sentences with their endings.