WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF AIRCRAFT WINGS?

INTRODUCTION

Types of aircraft wings can be characterized based on their shape, position, and number of wings attached to the fuselage. On the basis of shape, it can be a rectangular wing, elliptic wing, delta wing, boxed wing, dihedral wing, polyhedral wing, anhedral wing, gull wing, etc.

On the basis of the position of wings, it can be a low winger, mid winger, or high winger. On the basis of the number of wings it can be a monoplane, biplane, triplane, and so on.

1. RECTANGULAR WING AIRCRAFT 

This wing extends out from the fuselage of an aircraft at a right angle. It is the simplest to manufacture. It is a straight and non-tapered wing that is mostly used in small aircraft. Rectangular wings are wing root stallers. The best example of an aircraft where a rectangular wing was used is the Piper PA-38.

2. ELLIPTIC WING AIRCRAFT

These types of wings are aerodynamically most efficient because elliptical spanwise lift distribution induces the lowest drag. The elliptical wing wasn't originally designed to minimize drag, but rather it was made to house the landing gear along with ammunition and guns inside the wings. A good example of elliptical-wing aircraft is Supermarine Spitfire.

3. DELTA WING AIRCRAFT

These types of wings are commonly used in supersonic aircraft. It is a low aspect ratio wing. The main advantage of a delta wing is that it is efficient in all regimes. And also this type of wing offers a large area for the shape thereby improving maneuverability and reducing wing loads.

4. LOW-WING AIRCRAFT

In this type of wing, the configuration placed the wings anywhere below the midline of the aircraft or anywhere below half of the fuselage's height.

5. MID WING AIRCRAFT

In this configuration, the wings are attached at the mid-portion of the fuselage. Usually, almost all combat aircraft are mid-wing aircraft. They use symmetrical aerofoils. Mid wings aircraft are very well balanced, and they have a large control surface area.

6. HIGH-WING AIRCRAFT

In this type of wing configuration, the wings are set on the top of the aircraft's fuselage. These types of aircraft are more stable than mid-wing aircraft. But they are less maneuverable than low-wing aircraft.

7. MONOPLANE AIRCRAFT

An aircraft with one set of wings is called monoplane aircraft. It is the simplest to build. It has high efficiency and the lowest drag of any other wing configuration.

8. BIPLANE AIRCRAFT

An aircraft with two sets of wings usually placed one above and slightly forward of the other. They create more drag than monoplane wings. So biplanes are less efficient than monoplanes.

9. TRIPLANE AIRCRAFT

An aircraft with three pairs of wings placed one above the others. This type of design was used mainly in the early history of aircraft.

10. BOXED WING AIRCRAFT

The boxed wing is a particular type of closed-wing design. It has two main wings that merge at their end so that there are no wingtips. This type of wing design offers structural advantages over a conventional design of the wing.