Numeracy: Forces of Flight

Ngaire Bushell [Producer, Imperial War Museums]: Hello and welcome to Imperial War Museums. Today, we are going to be hearing from our friends at the Skylab – a charity that uses jet aircraft to inspire and guide people into science technology engineering and maths by exploring aviation. Skylab love coming to IWM Duxford and are really passionate about sharing how important STEM is to aviation. 

So, shortly, I'm going to hand you over to Jeff who runs Skylab. Jeff is a scientist who wants to set you a challenge that uses maths, a little bit of physics and even some chemistry to show that these things are just as important to aviation technology as the pilot sitting in the cockpit. The challenge is based on two really famous and important aircraft: the classic Spitfire – used in the Battle of Britain and actually flown from what was then known as RAF Duxford before it became IWM Duxford – and the more modern Typhoon – which is currently flown by the Royal Air Force and other air forces around the world today. So, over to you, Jeff. 

Jeff, the Skylab: Welcome to the Skylab! And we have got a great challenge for you today. You are going to be scientists and engineers and you're going to do just what they do in their jobs and the aim of the task is for you to be able to work out the performance differences between the Spitfire and the Typhoon. But like any scientist and engineer you're going to need to know a little bit of knowledge first before you can go about the tasks and complete your challenge. 

So first we need to think about the aeroplane itself and this is a model of a Spitfire, and it looks beautiful it has an amazing design, but that design is not by chance, it's because it's been developed by scientists and engineers so it can move around the air, be very manoeuvrable and very, very fast and it does that by understanding how four forces of flight operate.  

The first force of flight is the weight of the aeroplane and that acts downwards pull by gravity. The second force is thrust and thrust helps push the aeroplane or pull the aeroplane through the air and it's generated by the propeller of the Spitfire or the jet engines of the Typhoon and that helps counteract drag. Drag’s the third force and this acts in the opposite direction to thrust because the aeroplane has to go through the sky push away the air molecules to be able to move. And the final force is the force of lift and lift is what creates the aeroplane to be able to fly in the sky and take off and move around in.  

Force is generated by the wings, and it's generated by the wings in a way that means the thrust of the aeroplane and the speed of the aeroplane is really important. It's important because, as it moves through the sky, it enables air to fly over the wing in a way which generates that lift but it does so because of the shape of this wing. And if wings are very efficient in generating lift, they will create a lot of lift and that will help them be much more manoeuvrable.  

This is a cross-section of a Spitfire that we are building using 3D printing. So, by understanding how those forces work and using the data, you are going to calculate the area of the wings of the Spitfire and the Typhoon by calculating the areas of triangles just like you do in the classroom. And don't worry – this might appear quite daunting, but it is completely achievable, and you will be able to do it and you will be amazed at the differences in performance over the last 60 years between the Spitfire and the Typhoon.  

So, good luck in your challenge and it's back over to you at IWM. 

Ngaire: My goodness! Who knew that you could use maths to work out the areas of aircraft wings? And then to use that information with other data to be able to see just how massive the performance differences are between the Battle of Britain's Spitfire and the modern Typhoon. 

This shows that aviation science and design is always moving forward but whilst we don't yet know what the next innovations will be, we do know the challenge that you have been set is the same type of work done by scientists and engineers every day. So now that Jeff has set you your challenge, I hope you will enjoy it and maybe it will make you look at maths in a very different way.  

Good luck!