Aircraft trailing vortices: An introduction

Flow momentum that is deflected in a persistent way by a wing, or by another flow, becomes organised in coherent and energetic vortex structures. This phenomenon is briefly introduced here by comparison with other phenomena such as the production of vortices by impulsive forces (e.g. during animal flight), or the production of turbulence by jets. These considerations aim at underlining the fundamental nature of this strange mechanism, which is usually hidden behind engineering models produced by aerodynamic science. The control of these mechanisms, for applications to the safety of the airplanes for example, opens a vast multidisciplinary field of research.