Define the main idea of the part Weight and Power: the Critical Equation. (Note: It should be a complete sentence.) Find the supporting details that help to develop the main idea
A) Look through the following list of word combinations, translate making use of a dictionary.
Meantime, to assemble, wooden hangar, mysterious, art of piloting, local, to christen, major concern, immediately, automotive four cylinder engines, relatively, to get rid of, front-mounted, to neglect, ignition device, rpm, a gust of wind, to desintegrate the machine, to dismantle the machine, to celebrate Christmas, teenage dream, ornithology, to guide a glider, wing warping principle, to carry out experiments, a long series of, to take photos, to escape publicity.
b) Divide them into:
Expressions to be used when speaking about aviation
General expressions
C) Reproduce the context with these expressions.
D) Use the phrases in your own contexts.
3. Complete the sentences:
1. The engine-powered “Flyer”, as they had christened it, was …
2. The radiator was made of…
3. The engine block was made of …
4. They replace the carburetor by …
5. Transmission to the propeller would be …
6. The machine they tested the first year was a …
7. Flown without pilot, a biplane proved …
8. Having analyzed and resolved various aerodynamic issues, they focused on …
9. The many photos taken by the brothers show …
Answer the questions below.
1) Did the Wright brothers only design the flying machine or they also build it?
2) Why it was necessary to build a “monorail”?
3) What advantages and disadvantages did the Wrights’ engine have?
4) Why was it necessary to reduce the weight of the machine?
5) Did the Wrights first test the machine with or without a pilot?
6) When did they successfully test their first machine?
7) How long did the first flight last?
Put 3 more questions to the text.
Focus on Writing
A) The following sentences are about the steps the Wrights took on the prominent day of testing the airplane. But the sentences are mixed. Rewrite them in the correct order.
1) The landing broke the elevator control.
2) A neighbor had been instructed to take a photograph as soon as the aircraft left the ground.
3) On December 17, despite a wind of 20 knots, stronger than they would have liked, they rolled out the Flyer.
4) In twenty minutes they had made the repairs, and the brothers made three more flights.
5) The flight had lasted just 12 seconds, but it was a real, sustained, controlled flight, in front of witnesses.
6) At 10:35 am, Orville climbed into place and took the controls.
7) The last flight had started with the aircraft wavering, then achieving perfectly level flight as the pilot brought it under control.
8) The Flyer rolled down the rail, rose into the air to an altitude of about 10 feet and traveled forward some 120 feet before nosing into a dune.
9) However, barely had the aircraft returned to the ground when a gust of wind upened it and rolled it over, desintegrating the machine.
10) The neighbor tried to save the Flyer and was luckily injured, but would always remind listeners that he had survived the world’s first airplane crash!
B) Compare it with you peers.
Speaking
Tell your own story about any other aircraft designer. Follow the plan.
1. Family and childhood.
2. Education.
1. What had influenced his choice to become an aircraft designer.
2. Who his colleagues and friends were.
3. Tell about the advantages of his most famous models.
4. Name his progenies and stalwarts.
5. Tell if his invention is modern or obsolete.
UNIT 5
TYPES OF AIRCRAFT
Preparing to read
Name the aircraft you know. Describe them. Try to group them according to their principle of flying.
Match the keywords with their translations.
1. seaplane a. воздушный винт
2. glider b. амфибия
3. airplane c. реактивный снаряд, ракета
4. helicopter d. гидросамолёт
5. autogiro e. силовая установка
6. missile f. планер
7. airscrew g. автожир
8. float h. вертолёт
9. amphibian i. поплавок
10. power plant j. самолёт
Reading
Read the text and check whether your predictions in ex. 2 were correct.
Read the text and name the vehicles not mentioned at the beginning of the unit.
Read the text and write out the words and word combinations you don’t know, try to guess their meaning from the context. Compare your notes with your partners.
TYPES OF AIRCRAFT
A. Modern heavier-than-air aircraft can be divided into two main classes according to the principle of flying: 1) aircraft flying due to aerodynamical action and 2) aircraft performing ballistic flight.
B. Aircraft of the first class are gliders, airplanes, helicopters, autogiros and winged missiles. Ballistic rockets belong to the second class.
C. Gliders have no power plant and are supported in the air by up and down airstreams or airflows encountering the wing. The glider is lighter than the airplane and covers long distances with little loss of height. Thanks to them much of the early advance in aviation became possible. Now the gliders serve mostly for sport and training.
D. Airplanes are controllable machines and have engines which give power for forward motion. The lifting force of airplanes is created by the wing itself while they are propelled by the thrust produced by the airscrew or by a jet engine. The arrangement and number of the wings subdivide the airplanes into the classification as follows:
1) the biplane which is a two wing plane with an upper and lower of wings;
2) the monoplane which is an airplane with wings in one level.
These are divided into four general types according to the wing position:
a) the mid wing monoplane with the wing secured midway between the top and bottom of the fuselage;
b) the high wing monoplane having the wing attached to the top of the fuselage;
c) the low wing monoplane with the wing attached to the bottom of the fuselage;
d) the parasol wing monoplane having its wing placed a short distance above the
fuselage and attached to it by struts and braces.
E. Many airplanes are equipped to take off water and land on water. Such airplanes are called flying boats if the boat hull replaces the airplane fuselage, or seaplanes if floats take the place of wheels on a conventional land plane. If flying boats and seaplanes are also equipped with wheels for landing on the ground they are called amphibians.
F. At present VTOL and STOL aircraft are becoming popular but for vertical take-off it is necessary to produce the lift force exceeding the aircraft weight. The source of the lift is the energy developed by the propulsion system. The following methods of vertical take-off are suggested now:
a) the direct application of power plant thrust,
b) the application of lifting properties of airfoil.
G. The helicopter largely differs from the airplane. The main thing that distinguishes a helicopter from an airplane is that the necessary lift force for
helicopter is produced by a rotor instead of wings. The helicopter has a fuselage but there is no conventional propeller in the nose. Instead it has rotor blades on the top. The engine drives them. The power of a helicopter engine is transmitted to the rotor which produces the thrust for vertical take-off, hovering and forward propulsion. The helicopter is able to rise straight off the ground, fly forward, backward, sideward and descend vertically to the ground. Yet it has a few disadvantages. One of them is its inability to fly at high speed.
H. The autogiro is flying on the same principles, but the difference is that in addition to a rotor the autogiro has also a tractor airscrew. The power developed by the autogiro engine is transmitted to the airscrew while the rotor is freely revolving under the action of airflow, thus creating the lifting force.
I. Ballistic rockets (missiles) belong to the second class of aircraft. They do not require any lifting force produced by means of a wing. The rocket engine is to impart them the necessary energy for propulsion. The rocket engines are mostly operated on liquid or solid fuels.
Comprehension Check