Propeller

A rotating assembly of airfoils that produces thrust by accelerating air backward. Its blades generate aerodynamic force as they move through the air.

Blade Element Theory: An aerodynamic method that models a propeller blade as a series of two-dimensional airfoil sections. It estimates how each section contributes to a propeller’s thrust and torque.
Airfoil: A shaped surface designed to produce aerodynamic force as it moves through a fluid. Each propeller blade is an airfoil that generates force as it rotates.
Aircraft Propeller: A propeller that produces thrust to propel an aircraft through the air. It is the most familiar use of the air-accelerating propeller.
Jet Engine: An engine that produces thrust by ejecting a high-speed stream of gas. Jet propulsion is generally better suited than propellers to very high flight speeds.
Advance Ratio: A dimensionless ratio of an aircraft’s forward speed to a propeller’s rotational speed and diameter. It helps describe how propeller performance changes with forward speed.
Angle of Attack: The angle between a body's reference line and the direction of the oncoming flow. A blade’s local angle of attack affects lift, drag, and stall.
Marine Propeller: A rotating device that propels a vessel by accelerating water backward. The same basic principle operates in water, where density and cavitation change design constraints.
Rocket Engine: An engine that produces thrust by expelling reaction mass and carries its own oxidizer. Unlike a propeller, it can generate thrust without drawing in surrounding air.
Pitch (aviation): The distance an ideal propeller would advance in one revolution through a solid medium. Blade pitch sets the geometric distance a propeller is designed to advance per turn.
Lift (force): The component of a fluid force perpendicular to the oncoming flow. The rotating blades’ aerodynamic forces combine to produce axial thrust.

Linked from 11 pages