science

Payen Pa 49

Payen Pa 49 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Payen Pa 49 rather than just read about it. In short: The Payen Pa 49 Katy was a small experimental French turbojet powered tailless aircraft, designed by Nicolas Roland Payen, and first flown in 1954. It was the first French aircraft of this kind and the smallest jet aircraft of its day.

Key takeaways

Payen Pa 49 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Payen Pa 49 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Payen Pa 49 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Payen Pa 49 Katy was a small experimental French turbojet powered tailless aircraft, designed by Nicolas Roland Payen, and first flown in 1954. It was the first French aircraft of this kind and the smallest jet aircraft of its day.

Design and development Roland Payen was a pioneer of tailless and delta winged aircraft, building two designs, a light aircraft and a fighter, before the Second World War. The Pa 49 Katy was his first post-war design. The all-wood Katy was a tailless aircraft, having no separate horizontal stabiliser. The wing leading edge was swept at about 55° but, unlike the classic delta with its straight trailing edge, the Katy's was swept at about 30° with each trailing edge carrying full span control surfaces, elevators inboard and ailerons outboard. At its root, the wing merged gently into the fuselage with small air intakes for the 1.47 kN (330 lbf) Turbomeca Palas engine built into the leading edge. The cockpit was placed just aft of the intakes and the long straight-edged fin, swept at about 75° and initially as wide as the cockpit, began immediately behind it, narrowing to a slightly swept trailing edge carrying a full depth rudder. Images recorded before the first flight show the Katy with a low bicycle undercarriage with wing tip skids, but, by the time of the flight itself, this was replaced by a fixed, un-faired tricycle undercarriage.

Operational history

The first flight of what was now the Pa 49A took place on 22 January 1954 at Melun-Villaroche flown by Tony Ochsenbein, a comparatively inexperienced pilot, who had previously logged only 30 minutes on jets. Ten hours of manufacturer's testing was followed, in April 1954, by assessment at the Centre d'Essais en Vol (CEV), Brétigny-sur-Orge. The aerobatic ability of the Pa 49 was established. At the CEV it was fitted with a split rudder airbrake; the two surfaces of the rudder separated from just below the tip, driven via faired external links near the bottom, into a V at the hinge for braking, rotating together for yaw control. This airbrake was designed by Fléchair SA, a company founded by Payen. At the time of its appearance at the 12th Salon International d'Aeronautique at Paris, in 1957, the undercarriage legs were faired and the main wheels enclosed in spats and the aircraft renamed the Pa 49B. For a time the nosewheel was also spatted. There were plans for a version with a retractable undercarriage, but this did not come about. When the flight testing programme ended in 1958 Payen gave the aircraft to the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Paris - Le Bourget Airport. He continued to design delta winged aircraft and the Payen Pa 71 and Pa 149 projects of the 1970s were direct developments of the Katy.

Specifications

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1956–57General characteristics Crew: 1 Length: 5.10 m (16 ft 9 in) Wingspan: 5.16 m (16 ft 11 in) Height: 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) Empty weight: 457 kg (1,008 lb) Gross weight: 650 kg (1,433 lb) Powerplant: 1 × Turbomeca Palas centrifugal-flow turbojet, 1.5 kN (330 lbf) thrust Performance

Maximum speed: 500 km/h (310 mph, 270 kn) Cruise speed: 350 km/h (220 mph, 190 kn) Range: 450 km (280 mi, 240 nmi) Service ceiling: 8,500 m (27,900 ft) Rate of climb: 5.8 m/s (1,140 ft/min) initial

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Payen Pa 49

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Payen Pa 49 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Payen Pa 49 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Payen Pa 49 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Payen Pa 49

In research: Payen Pa 49 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Payen Pa 49 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Payen Pa 49 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950s French experimental aircraft, Aircraft first flown in 1954, Microjets, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Payen Pa 49 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Payen Pa 49 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Payen Pa 49 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Payen Pa 49 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Payen Pa 49 in simple terms?

Why does Payen Pa 49 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Payen Pa 49?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Payen Pa 49.