Recognition: Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps - Identification of Aircraft - III: Wings

CHAPTER III: WINGS

SECTION I. Position on Fuselage.

54. A front view of an aircraft gives an observer an opportunity to note the manner in witch the wings are attached to the fuselage. There are five general classifications based on this factor, as follows: Low-wing monoplanes, Mid-wing monoplanes, High-wing mono-planes, Parasol-wing monoplanes, and Biplanes.

SECTION II SHAPE—FRONT VIEW

55. Biplanes are now the exception rather than the rule. Therefore, this manual will be largely confined to an analysis of the characteristics of monoplanes.

56. When an observer gets a front view of a plane, he should note, in addition to the manner in which the wings are attached to the fuselage, the shape of the wings in relation to the fuselage. There are four classifications based on this factor, as follows: Flat, Dihedral, Gull Wing, and Inverted Gull Wing.

SECTION III SHAPE—UNDERNEATH VIEW

57. The underneath view of an aircraft's wings is even more helpful than the front view for purposes of identification. There are five major classifications of wing shape from the underneath viewpoint, which may be found in various combinations. They are: Straight, Sweptback, Tapered, Rounded Trailing Edge, and Elliptical.

SECTION IV SHAPE—WING TIPS

58. The shape of the wing tips should be noted as well as the shape of the wings themselves when an observer gets an underneath view of a plane. The four major classifications based on this factor are: Round, Square, Elliptical, and Raked.

SECTION V WINGS—SUMMARY

59. Below are some silhouettes of airplanes that appear elsewhere in this manual. Test your knowledge of this chapter by classifying each wing shape. The Dauntless, for instance, is a low wing mono-plane with dihedral wings; the Douglas Transport has sweptback wings and round wing tips.