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GATE 2019 AE – Question 51

Flight Mechanics & Space Dynamics · Airplane performance: drag polar, take-off and landing, climb and descent, ceilings, range and endurance, load factor, turning flight, V-n diagram, winds · 2 marks · Numerical answer

An airplane weighs 8000 N and has wing area 16 m², zero-lift drag coefficient 0.02, Oswald efficiency 0.8 and aspect ratio 6. Its lift coefficient in steady level flight is 0.375. At the same airspeed and density, find the ratio of induced-drag coefficient in level flight to that in a steady 30° climb (two decimal places).

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Correct answer: 1.32 to 1.35

Explanation

In steady climb, the lift normal to the flight path is W cosγ. At fixed dynamic pressure and area, $C_{L,climb}=C_{L,level}\cos\gamma$. Induced drag coefficient is $C_L^2/(\pi e AR)$, so the requested ratio is $1/\cos^2 30°=4/3=1.33$. The zero-lift contribution is irrelevant to this induced-only comparison.

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