ORIGINAL: Nathan King
ORIGINAL: cappaj1
ORIGINAL: Missileman
Wing loading is simply how much wing area you have divided by the weight of the airplane.
Simply put the higher the wing loading the faster the airplane need to fly to stay in the air.
Trainers have low wing loading so are able to fly slower and land slower. Warbirds have high wing loading so they have to fly faster and land hotter.
Can you give an example? ie. wing area is widthxlength 12inchesx70inches=840sq.in. divided by weight (with fuel or without?) ie. 4lbs. or 840/4=210 - is this correct for the example given?
What units are typically used to do the calcs - square inches and lbs or ounces or grams??
Wing loading is typically given in oz./sq. ft. The formula is (
weight x 2304) /
wing area - where weight is in pounds and area is in square inches. Beware, 12 square inches is
NOT equal to 1 square foot!!!!
(and yes, I've actually seen somebody do that!!) In case you're still scratching your head, there are 144 square inches in a square foot.
There are a number of wing loading calculators online, google them, that you can just plug in the numbers.
Here is one:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/eflight/calcs_wingload.htm