Drone Builders Collective | Podcast on RSS.com

Aerodynamics and Flight: Compressibility and High-Speed Flight

AI

This lesson explains Mach number, the speed of sound, shock waves, expansion waves, transonic flight, critical Mach number, drag divergence, Mach tuck, sweep, high-speed inlets, and nozzle flow.

S1 · E8

Aug 23, 2026

31:23

Aerodynamics and Flight: Real Airflow and Aerodynamic Testing

AI

This lesson explains how engineers deal with real airflow. We will cover boundary layers, laminar and turbulent flow, transition, separation, Reynolds number, wind-tunnel testing, flow visualization, computational models, flight testing, and uncertainty.

S1 · E7

Aug 23, 2026

34:52

Aerodynamics and Flight: Aerodynamic Surfaces and Controls

AI

This lesson explains flight control surfaces, how they work, why an aircraft needs more than a wing, and why the systems that move them are as important as the surfaces themselves.

S1 · E6

Aug 23, 2026

31:41

Aerodynamics and Flight: Wing and Aircraft Geometry

AI

This lesson explains the major parts of wing geometry and how designers use them to shape aircraft behavior.

S1 · E5

Aug 23, 2026

30:47

Aerodynamics and Flight: Drag and Aerodynamic Efficiency

AI

In the last lesson we learned how a wing creates lift: camber, thickness, angle of attack, pressure differences, and the turning of airflow all work together. But lift does not grow without limit. Push the angle of attack far enough, and something dramatic happens—the smooth airflow that was generating all that lift falls apart. That event is the stall, and understanding it is essential because most aviation accidents in small aircraft happen near a stall. This lesson explains what the stall really is, why it happens, how designers manage it, and how aircraft use movable surfaces called high-lift devices to fly safely and slowly for takeoff and landing.

S1 · E4

Aug 23, 2026

31:29

Aerodynamics and Flight: Wings and Lift, Part 2 - Stall and High-Lift Devices

AI

In the last lesson we learned how a wing creates lift: camber, thickness, angle of attack, pressure differences, and the turning of airflow all work together. But lift does not grow without limit. Push the angle of attack far enough, and something dramatic happens—the smooth airflow that was generating all that lift falls apart. That event is the stall, and understanding it is essential because most aviation accidents in small aircraft happen near a stall. This lesson explains what the stall really is, why it happens, how designers manage it, and how aircraft use movable surfaces called high-lift devices to fly safely and slowly for takeoff and landing.

S1 · E3

Aug 23, 2026

14:20

Aerodynamics and Flight: Wings and Lift, Part 1 - Airflow, Pressure, Momentum

AI

Lift is not a vague miracle. It is a force produced by a pressure difference over the wing, which itself comes from the wing's shape and angle of attack. A cambered airfoil produces lift at zero geometric angle; a symmetric one needs positive angle. Either way, the wing turns airflow, creating circulation and a pressure imbalance that yields an upward-directed component of aerodynamic force.

S1 · E2

Aug 23, 2026

17:32

Aerodynamics and Flight: Forces and Motion

AI

This segment explains what the four forces are, how they change, and how they work together to determine an aircraft’s motion. It also introduces airspeed, density, altitude, and energy—the ideas that make the difference between an aircraft that merely flies and one that performs a useful mission.

S1 · E1

Aug 22, 2026

32:03