Several people have asked me why I settled on ‘Fly The Wing’ as the name for my website.  Couple of reasons.  First, it’s obviously a little play on my name, Garry Wing.

It’s also homage to Jack Northrop and his ‘Flying Wing’ concept plane (more on that at the end of this article). But at its core, ‘Fly The Wing’ represents the essence of what we do when we fly airplanes.  You’ve no doubt heard the old admonition to always “Fly the Airplane”. In an emergency, or during a non-standard maneuver or routine, that’s solid advice. But, if you drill down below the surface, it gets even more basic than that.

Essentially, the fuselage, tail and engine cowling contribute nothing (positive) to our flying experience. They create only drag and weight, and absolutely no lift (again, see the section on the Flying Wing plane below, for Northrop’s plan to eliminate those superfluous components from an airplane). It is the wing --- and only the wing --- that creates the lift required to establish and maintain controlled flight.

Some may argue that the down force on the tail, the yaw moment created by the rudder and vertical stabilizer and engine thrust are also critical to flight. That’s somewhat true, but you can fly a plane without an engine (gliders); you can even control a plane without rudder or elevator authority (hang gliders). But without lift from the wings, nothing happens, and none of those other components of flight are necessary nor present.

I contend that awareness you are merely ‘flying a wing’ through the air will go a long way to improving your own flying skills. The classic example of this is a stall. We all know that a wing stalls when it exceeds its critical angle of attack.

But many pilots still (wrongly) think of a stall in terms of airspeed. Because they see the table printed in the airplane’s POH that a stall occurs at say, 48-knots (0º flaps and 0º bank), they figure if they just fly faster than 48-knots, they’ll never stall. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. If I bank that same airplane 55º and pull back on the stick, we’re going to stall at just under 70-knots, not at 48-knots. And what happens if I immediately decrease the angle of attack ever so slightly, below the critical angle of attack? Well, we’re flying again. Fly the wing.

In summary, if you…

1. ‣Maintain a healthy respect for minimum flying airspeed at all times;
   

2. ‣Be aware of your angle of attack and attitude (relative to your flight path rather than to the horizon);
   

3. ‣Focus on solid stick and rudder skills (coordinated flight at all times);
   

…you’ll be well on your way to embracing my concept of “Flying The Wing”, the essence of basic aerodynamics.

Jack Northrop’s Flying Wing

Jack Northrop was an early aircraft designer,

first at Douglas Aircraft, and later as chief engineer of the Vega, for the Lockheed brothers. He started Avion Aircraft, and in the early 20’s had a dream of designing a Flying Wing. His obsession was to create a low drag, high lift tailless fixed-wing aircraft.

Early on, Northrop realized that the fuselage, tail and engine nacelles of an aircraft only create drag (they certainly contribute nothing to lift). His idea was to integrate (or eliminate) those components into what was essentially just a huge flying wing.

His designs of the YB-35 and YB-49 airplanes for the Air Force during and after World War II were the result of his passion. His life story would make a great feature film (a more intriguing story than that of Amelia Earhart, IMHO). His contentious relationship with the US Air Force and those bastards over at Convair would be a great story in and of itself.

In 1949, Boy’s Life magazine ran an article chronicling Northrop’s ambitious Flying Wing project. Click here to read that article on line. And finally, here’s a very cool promotional video from 1949 touting the features and benefits of this futuristic Flying Wing:

Link if video is not displayed below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6U9CL0K_A

© 2010 Garry Wing