astronomy

Starck AS-37

Starck AS-37 is a astronomy 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 Starck AS-37 rather than just read about it. In short: The Starck AS-37 is a two-seat biplane with unconventional wing and propulsion layouts. It was designed in France in the 1970s; though three were built and more than twenty sets of plans sold for home building, no AS-37s are active in 2012.

Key takeaways

Starck AS-37 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Starck AS-37 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Starck AS-37 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Starck AS-37 is a two-seat biplane with unconventional wing and propulsion layouts. It was designed in France in the 1970s; though three were built and more than twenty sets of plans sold for home building, no AS-37s are active in 2012.

Design and development The AS-37 is conventionally constructed from wood, with a spruce structure covered with acajou plywood. The small gap, high stagger wing arrangement first proposed by Nenadovitch is the aircraft's most unusual feature, though one that its designer André Starck had used in two of his earlier aircraft, the AS-20 from 1942 and the AS-27 from the early 1970s. The wings have low aspect ratios; the upper one is mounted on the fuselage a little above mid-position and the lower at the bottom of the fuselage, making the gap unusually small. The stagger is sufficient to place the upper trailing edge a little ahead of the lower leading edge. Together, the two wings were intended to have some of the desirable characteristics of a single, slotted wing. The AS-37 has wings of unequal span and chord, the lower one smaller, joined not by conventional interplane struts but by wing tip "curtains". These aerodynamic surfaces, as broad in chord as the lower wings, lean outwards at 45° with ailerons attached to their trailing edges. As well as stiffening the wing structure, these curtains were said to improve lateral control and stall behaviour. The earlier AS-27 was powered by a conventionally nose-mounted engine but, though the AS-37 is also single engined, it originally had two propellers in pusher configuration, one on each upper wing. The propellers turned in the narrow gap between the two wings, with the intention that the propeller slipstream should enhance the slot effect of the wing pair. The propellers were timing belt driven, with a gear reduction of 2:1, by a 49 kW (65 hp) Citroën GS 1220 engine placed near mid-fuselage, behind the cabin. The fuselage of the AS-37 is deep and flat sided. The constant chord tailplane, placed on top of the fuselage, and the fin, which has a straight, swept leading edge, both carry balanced control surfaces. The cabin is forward of the upper wing, enclosed by a single curvature canopy which follows the straight sloping nose. Dual controls are provided for the side-by-side seating. The AS-37 had a fixed tricycle undercarriage with the mainwheels on side V-struts and half-axles and the wheels have disc brakes. The first AS-37 first flew in this form, later referred to as the AS-37A, on 15 January 1977 and by October it had logged 100 hours flying. It was built by Rudy Nickel. A second AS-37A was built by Léon Knoepfli but was modified after a short test programme into the first AS-37B. The curtains were removed and their stiffening role taken by conventional wide chord cantilever interplane struts and the ailerons moved to the upper wing. Flaps were added to the lower wings. The undercarriage V-struts were replaced with glass fibre faired cantilever legs, with fairings enclosing all three wheels. These changes increased the empty weight to 451 kg (995 lb). By about 1979 the Citroën engines of both the AS-37A and AS-37B had been replaced with more powerful 75 kW (100 hp) Porsche 2 flat-fours. The first AS-37B was then heavily modified by its builder into the Knoepfli VSTOL. The wings, empennage, forward fuselage and undercarriage of the AS-37B were retained but the rear fuselage was replaced with a slim, low set, flat sided, slightly upward curved beam, allowing a new and more conventional pusher engine and propeller combination to be placed immediately behind the cabin, just above the original fuselage line. These alterations were made before the end of summer 1980 and may have included another engine change to a Renault 343. Between 1980 and 1998 the AS-37A had undergone further modifications with the installation of tractor, rather than pusher, propellers, belt driven as before. The undercarriage was altered into a similar form to that of the AS-37B though without the wheel fairings. This version was renamed the Starck-Nickel SN.01. The SN.01 was active until at least 1998 but is now (2012) a museum display item, see below; the third airframe (the second AS-37B) also survives in a museum (Muséum Régional de l'Air, Angers) but is not on public display. Though plans for 23 aircraft had been sold by 1980, it seems only one more, the second AS-37B, was completed.

Variants Starck AS-37A Original version. Starck AS-37B Second aircraft after curtain and undercarriage modifications; third aircraft. Starck-Nickel SN.01 First aircraft, tractor propellers. Knoepfli VSTOL Second aircraft with new low set boom fuselage permitting a direct drive pusher engine installation behind cabin.

Aircraft on display The Starck-Nickel SN.01 is on display in the Musée Aéronautique Presqu'île Côte d'Amour at la Baule aerodrome.

Specifications (AS-37A) Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1980/81General characteristics Crew: 2 Length: 6.00 m (19 ft 8 in) Wingspan: 6.30 m (20 ft 8 in) Height: 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) Wing area: 13.60 m2 (146.4 sq ft) Empty weight: 400 kg (882 lb) Max takeoff weight: 620 kg (1,367 lb) Powerplant: 1 × Citroën GS 1220 4-cylinder air-cooled, 48 kW (65 hp) Propellers: 2-bladed Performance

Maximum speed: 185 km/h (115 mph, 100 kn) at sea level Cruise speed: 170 km/h (110 mph, 92 kn) at sea level Range: 1,500 km (930 mi, 810 nmi) with 90 L (24 US gal; 20 Imp gal) fuel Service ceiling: 4,500 m (14,800 ft) Rate of climb: 3.5 m/s (690 ft/min) at sea level Take-off run: 200 m (655 ft) Landing run: 140 m (460 ft)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Starck AS-37

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Starck AS-37 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Starck AS-37 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 Starck AS-37 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 Starck AS-37

In research: Starck AS-37 appears in astronomy 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 Starck AS-37 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: Starck AS-37 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1970s French sport aircraft, Aircraft first flown in 1977, Aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Starck AS-37 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 Starck AS-37 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Starck AS-37 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 Starck AS-37 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Starck AS-37 in simple terms?

Why does Starck AS-37 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Starck AS-37?

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 Starck AS-37.