Fairing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A fairing is a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline and reduce drag. These structures are generally light-weight shapes and covers for gaps and spaces between parts of a vehicle, aircraft or rocket to reduce form drag and interference drag, and to improve appearance.
[edit] Aircraft
On aircraft, fairings are commonly found on:
- wing tips, which may have a complex shape to reduce vortex generation and so also drag, especially at low speed
- wing roots, to reduce interference drag
- tail cones, to reduce the form drag of the fuselage
- fin and rudder tips, to reduce turbulence at the tip
- elevator and horizontal stabilizer tips
- strut-to-wing and strut-to-fuselage junctions
- fixed landing gear junctions
- wheels on fixed gear aircraft — often called "wheel pants"
- engine cowlings, to reduce parasitic drag and cooling drag.
[edit] Flap track fairings
Most jet airliners have a cruising speed between Mach 0.8 and 0.85. For aircraft operating in the transonic regime (about Mach 0.8–1.2), wave drag can be minimized by having a cross-sectional area which changes smoothly along the length of the aircraft. This is known as the area rule. On subsonic aircraft such as jet airliners, this can be acheived by the addition of smooth pods on the trailing edges of the wings. These pods are known as anti-shock bodies, Küchemann Carrots, or flap track fairings, as they enclose the mechanisms for deploying the wing flaps.
[edit] Launch vehicles
The fairings on satellite launch vehicles are expensive, high tech designs that protect the satellite from aerodynamic forces while maintaining a cleanroom environment. The fairing separation mechanisms for rocket launchers are difficult to design and test, but represent a very limited cause of launch failures.
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