drag wire

drag wire

[′drag ‚wīr]

(aerospace engineering)

A part of the truss in an airplane wing and also in the wing support; used to sustain the backward reaction due to the wing's drag.

drag wire

Criss-crossed tension wires between the spars to form a truss to resist forces acting on the wing in the direction of the wing chord. The wire designed to resist the backward forces is called a drag wire; the anti-drag wire resists the forward forces in the chord direction.