Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. In Fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a fluid regime characterized by chaotic Stochastic property changes This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Wingtip vortices are tubes of circulating air which are left behind by the Wing as it generates lift. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gasses expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent, but of short duration. Wingtip vortices, on the other hand, are much more stable and can remain in the air for up to three minutes after the passage of an aircraft. Wingtip vortices make up the primary and most dangerous component of wake turbulence. Wingtip vortices are tubes of circulating air which are left behind by the Wing as it generates lift.

Wake turbulence is especially hazardous during the landing and take off phases of flight, for three reasons. Landing is the last part of a Flight, where a flying Animal, Aircraft, or Spacecraft returns to the ground Takeoff is the phase of Flight in which an Aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground ( Taxiing) to flying in the air usually The first is that during take-off and landing, aircraft operate at low speeds and high angle of attack. This flight attitude maximizes the formation of dangerous wingtip vortices. Secondly, takeoff and landing are the times when a plane is operating closest to its stall speed and to the ground - meaning there is little margin for recovery in the event of encountering another aircraft's wake turbulence. Thirdly, these phases of flight put aircraft closest together and along the same flightpath, maximizing the chance of encountering the phenomenon.

This picture from a NASA study on wingtip vortices qualitatively illustrates the wake turbulence.
This picture from a NASA study on wingtip vortices qualitatively illustrates the wake turbulence. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program

Contents

Fixed wing - level flight

At altitude, vortices sink at a rate of 91 to 152 metres per minute and stabilize about 152 to 274 metres below the flight level of the generating aircraft. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International A Flight Level ( FL) is a standard nominal Altitude of an Aircraft, in hundreds of Feet. For this reason, aircraft operating greater than 610 metres above the terrain are not considered at risk.

Helicopters

Helicopters also produce wake turbulence. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. Helicopter wakes may be of significantly greater strength than those from a fixed wing aircraft of the same weight. The strongest wake can occur when the helicopter is operating at lower speeds (20 to 50 knots). Some mid-size or executive class helicopters produce wake as strong as that of heavier helicopters. This is because two blade main rotor systems, typical of lighter helicopters, produce stronger wake than rotor systems with more blades.

Parallel or crossing runways

During takeoff and landing, an aircraft's wake sinks toward the ground and moves laterally away from the runway when the wind is calm. A 3 to 5 knot crosswind will tend to keep the upwind side of the wake in the runway area and may cause the downwind side to drift toward another runway. A runway ( RWY) is a strip of land on an Airport, on which Aircraft can take off and land. Since the wingtip vortices exist at the outer edge of an airplane's wake, this can be dangerous.

Hazard avoidance

Wake vortex separation

ICAO mandates separation minima based upon wake vortex categories that are, in turn, based upon the Maximum Take Off Mass (MTOM) of the aircraft. The International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO) an agency of the United Nations, codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation

These minima are categorised are as follows:

There are a number of separation criteria for take-off, landing and en-route phases of flight based upon these categories. Air Traffic Controllers will sequence aircraft making instrument approaches with regard to these minima. Air traffic controllers are people who operate the Air traffic control system to expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of air traffic and help prevent An instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP is a type of Air navigation that allows pilots to land an Aircraft in Aircraft making a visual approach are advised of the relevant recommended spacing and are expected to maintain their own separation.

Common minima are:

Take-off

An aircraft of a lower wake vortex category must not be allowed to take off less than two minutes behind an aircraft of a higher wake vortex category. If the following aircraft does not start its take off roll from the same point as the preceding aircraft, this is increased to three minutes.

Landing
Preceding aircraft Following aircraft Minimum radar separation
A380-800 A380-800 4 nmi
Non-A380-800 Heavy 6 nmi
Medium 8 nmi
Light 10 nmi
Heavy Heavy 4 nmi
Medium 5 nmi
Light 6 nmi
Medium Light 5 nmi

Staying on or above leader's glide path

Incident data shows that the greatest potential for a wake vortex incident occurs when a light aircraft is turning from base to final behind a heavy aircraft flying a straight-in approach. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout A nautical mile or sea mile is a unit of Length. It corresponds approximately to one minute of Latitude along any meridian. Light aircraft pilots must use extreme caution and intercept their final approach path above or well behind the heavier aircraft's path. When a visual approach following a preceding aircraft is issued and accepted, the pilot is required to establish a safe landing interval behind the aircraft s/he was instructed to follow. The pilot is responsible for wake turbulence separation. Pilots must not decrease the separation that existed when the visual approach was issued unless they can remain on or above the flight path of the preceding aircraft.

Warning signs

Any uncommanded aircraft movements (such as wing rocking) may be caused by wake. This is why maintaining situation awareness is so critical. Ordinary turbulence is not unusual, particularly in the approach phase. A pilot who suspects wake turbulence is affecting his or her aircraft should get away from the wake, execute a missed approach or go-around and be prepared for a stronger wake encounter. The onset of wake can be insidious and even surprisingly gentle. There have been serious accidents where pilots have attempted to salvage a landing after encountering moderate wake only to encounter severe wake turbulence that they were unable to overcome. Pilots should not depend on any aerodynamic warning, but if the onset of wake is occurring, immediate evasive action is vital.

Accidents/incidents due to wake turbulence

Measurement

Wake turbulence can be measured using several techniques. A high-resolution technique is doppler lidar, a solution now commercially available. The Doppler effect (or Doppler shift) named after Christian Doppler, is the change in Frequency and Wavelength of a Wave for LIDAR ( Li ght D etection a nd R anging is an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered light to find range and/or Techniques using optics can use the effect of turbulence on refractive index (optical turbulence) to measure the distortion of light that passes through the turbulent area and indicate the strength of that turbulence. The refractive index (or index of Refraction) of a medium is a measure for how much the speed of light (or other waves such as sound waves is reduced inside the medium

Audibility

Wake turbulence can occasionally, under the right conditions, be heard by ground observers. On a still day, heavy jets flying low and slow on landing approach may produce wake turbulence that is heard as a dull roar/whistle. Often, it is first noticed some seconds after the direct noise of the passing aircraft has diminished. The sound then gets louder, sometimes becoming as loud as was the original direct sound of the aircraft. Nevertheless, being highly directional, wake turbulence sound is easily perceived as originating a considerable distance behind the aircraft, its apparent source moving across the sky just as the aircraft did. It can persist for 30 seconds or more, continually changing timbre, sometimes with swishing and cracking notes, until it finally dies away.

In popular culture

In the movie Top Gun, Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, suffers two flameouts caused by passing through the jet wash of another aircraft. Top Gun is a 1986 American Film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Thomas Cruise Mapother IV ( born July 3 1962 better known by his screen name Tom Cruise, is an American Actor and Film producer During a training mission Maverick is caught in Tom Kazansky's (played by Val Kilmer) jet wash. Maverick enters a flat spin as a result of an engine flameout, and loses his RIO and best friend "Goose" as they eject out of the plane. In the second incident, he is with "Merlin" and they are caught in a bogey's jet wash. Maverick recovers from the flameout but is shaken up.

In the movie Pushing Tin, air traffic controllers stand at the start of a runway while an airplane lands in order to experience wake turbulence firsthand, although they are more likely being exposed to jet blast. Pushing Tin is a 1999 comedy Drama film directed by Mike Newell. Jet blast is the phenomenon of rapid air movement produced by the jet Engines of Aircraft, particularly on or before takeoff

See also

External links

A wake is the region of Turbulence immediately to the rear of a solid body caused by the flow of Air or Water around the body
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic