Wings are an important part of an airplane, just as a bird has wings to soar in the sky.
We all know that the wings of an airplane provide lift to the plane and hang an important "heart" of the plane - the engine. In fact, in addition to these, the wing also has some unknown roles~
The fuel tanks of our common civil airliners are usually on the left and right wings and the center of the aircraft, and large passenger aircraft such as the A380 have a balanced fuel tank at the tail.
If the fuel tank is placed in the nose or tail of the aircraft, with the consumption of fuel during the flight, the aircraft is easy to be heavy and light, or the rear is heavy and light, and it cannot be stabilized.
In comparison, the position of the wing is more special, it is closer to the position of the aircraft's center of gravity. Putting fuel into the wing, even if the fuel is slowly consumed, the relative amount of movement to the aircraft's center of gravity position is relatively small, which is conducive to the balance and safety of the aircraft, and can also prevent the deformation of the wing.
When you take a window seat on an airplane, you will find that the wings have many "needle" like devices, which are called discharge brushes.
We all know that the aircraft is very fast in the high altitude, and the friction between the aircraft and the air at high speed, through the charged cloud and the internal mechanical friction will cause the aircraft to generate electrostatic charges.
If these static electricity is not released in time, when the charge accumulates to a certain amount of energy, it will produce a discharge phenomenon, interfere with aircraft communication, and even affect flight safety.
The discharge brush uses the principle of tip discharge, concentrates the charge on a small needle, and constantly produces a small discharge process with the air, releasing the charge in time and reducing the accumulation of charge on the fuselage.
Flaps are wing faces mounted on the trailing edge of the wing near the fuselage and can be deflected backwards and downwards around the axial axis. The flap is mainly a lifting device that increases the lift by increasing the curvature of the wing.
The main role of the flap is simply summarized: one is to increase the stall angle of attack to make the aircraft less prone to stalling, and the other is to make the aircraft gain greater lift.
Flaps are generally used at low speeds such as take-off and landing. If the flaps are forcibly lowered during the high-speed cruising phase, it will only increase the flight resistance and fuel consumption of the aircraft, and even cause damage to the aircraft structure.
Looking out from the porthole of the aircraft, you will see that there are many "big blocks" under the wings, and often the larger the aircraft, the more squares there are.
This device is called a flap fairing, and it is actually wrapped in a mechanical device that is used to drive the flap to open and close. If these mechanisms are exposed to the air, they will increase the flight resistance when flying, so they are wrapped up with a fairing, which also plays a protective role on the other hand.
When the flaps are lowered, the flap rails move backwards, the flaps slowly slide down along the slides, and the fairings also tilt down at an angle to block the airflow in front, and the flaps slide are generally invisible to passengers under the wings.
The "board" on the upper surface of the wings on both sides of the aircraft during the landing process is the spoiler of the aircraft.
Spoilers are very rugged panels that hinge directly to the upper surface of the wing. When the spoiler is opened upwards, the airflow on the upper surface is disturbed, which affects the lift and increases the drag.
On the one hand, the raised spoiler will reduce the lift of the aircraft and help the aircraft to smoothly stick to the ground, on the other hand, the spoiler will generate resistance to help the aircraft slow down, thereby shortening the landing and running distance of the aircraft.
In addition to the above devices, there are many other devices on the wings to assist the flight of the aircraft, so it seems that the wings are not two "big wings" that look like them, but a very complex and well-thought-out system.