An Electric Analogy for Modeling the Aerodynamics of Engineered and Biological Flight

There are examples in aerodynamics that take advantage of electric-to-aerodynamic analogies, like the law of Biot-Savart, which is used in aerodynamic theory to calculate the velocity induced by a vortex line. This article introduces an electric-to-aerodynamic analogy that models the lift, drag, and thrust of an airplane, a helicopter, a propeller, and a flapping bird. This model is intended to complement the recently published aerodynamic equation of state for lift, drag, and thrust of an engineered or a biological flyer by means of an analogy between this equation and Ohm's law. This model, as well as the aerodynamic equation of state, are both intended to include the familiar and time-proven parameters of pressure, work, and energy, analytical tools that are ubiquitous in all fields of science but absent in an aerodynamicists' day-to-day tasks. Illustrated by various examples, this modeling approach, as treated in this article, is limited to subsonic flight. © 2024 SAE International.