Page 184 - Understanding Flight

CH07_Anderson 7/25/01 9:00 AM Page 171

7
CHAPTER

Airplane Performance

irplane performance has increased spectacularly in the first 100
years of flight. Improvements in wing design, engine perfor-
Amance, and structural design have led to increased range, speed,
endurance, and number of passengers carried. Let us pretend we
have lived through the last 100 years and traveled regularly from
New York to Los Angeles. Figure 7.1 shows how transcontinental air
transportation has changed over the years. The trip has gone from
over 2 days in length to about 6 hours. The major reductions in time
needed to cross the country result from improvements in airplane
performance. For example, night flight, which began in 1930, caused
a 20 percent reduction in travel time. Before this time, passengers
would transfer to trains when it got dark and resume air travel far-
ther along the line in the morning. Though not shown in the figure,
there was a slight increase in travel time in 1973 due to the oil
embargo and a shift to more efficient cruise speeds. As discussed in
the previous chapter, the oil embargo caused wings to be redesigned
for slightly slower flight in order to conserve fuel.
Figure 7.2 shows the increase in the number of passengers that
could be carried by a passenger airplane through the years. In 1927,

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