Wing loading. What is it?

[Furzy]

Ive seen an earlier topic relating to Hi and low wing loaded A/C glideing. In my 4, nearly 5 years flightsims Ive heard about this but have never been given any explanation about it.

 What is "wingload"?

 What planes have "High and low wingloads"?<Say  a 190 and a Zeke I dont know which has which, or why?>

 How does "High Wing load effect a plane <i.e. higher stall speed?>"?


Furzy

[GRUNHERZ]

Wing lading is the planes weight divided by the surface area of the wing.

WING LOADING= AIRPLANE WEIGHT/WING AREA

The ZERO weighs much less than a FW190 and it has a much bigger wing, so ZERO has a lower wing loading than FW190.

[lemur]

Wing load is simply the weight of the plane per square foot of wing.

In simple terms it's the weight of the plane divided by the amount of lift generated.

So if a plane has lots of lift and not a lot of weight it'll:
a) Turn faster at slower speeds
b) Stall at a slower speed

Mind you, all sorts of other factors come into play as well (wings ripping off at high gees, drag caused by big-ass wings, slower roll rate caused by big-ass wings, yadda yadda)

But wing loading is the simplest of ways of mathematically measuring "Generally speaking, how quickly will this plane turn?"

Does that answer your question?

~Lemur

[ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: lemur ]