Physics Of Flight

The ability to fly has been available for many generations. The first flight by man was by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Even though it only lasted for a few seconds, flight has made life easier. Now, airplanes can transport people and goods over large bodies of water and land, and even make war easier (and harder) to win. With flight, lives have been changed, and the four forces, angle of attack, Bernoulli's Principle, and lift come to work when an airplane flies! There are four forces that work on an airplane. As seen in F1, they are thrust, air drag, gravity, and lift. Thrust pulls the plane forward and it is created because of the motor (engine) and propellers (the twisted blades). Without thrust, airplanes could not move at all. …show more content…
They are the angle of attack and Bernoulli's Principle. A principle is a rule that must be followed. The angle of attack, as seen in F2, is the bend between the horizontal line (the one going left to right), and the chord line (the diagonal line). This creates lift because air blowing up to the wing bounces off, pushing the wing up. This is the reason why if you stick your hand out of the window of a fast moving car, your hand moves up, which is lift. The second reason is Bernoulli's Principle. As seen is F3, the principle says that if there is an increase in velocity (speed) on the top of the wing, there will be less pressure on the top too, lifting the wing up. For example, if you blow really hard on top of a piece of paper, it will go up, and the Bernoulli's Principle is the reason why. In F4, it shows that when the velocity on top is going faster than the velocity on the bottom, a powerful vacuum is created, pulling the wing up. A vacuum is a powerful force, pulling everything nearby to its center, and in this case, the wing. The one end of the wing the is not attached to the plane pulls the rest of the plane up with the rest of the plane up with it, creating lift. Both the and the of attack and Bernoulli's Principle create lift on an