How Do Airplanes Fly - Essay Example

30 May How do airplanes fly? Nearly every time a person new to flying boards an airplane to jet off to a far away place, a simple question definitely occurs in his/her mind that what makes a plane fly, how does it stay in the air, what takes it up in the air, how it maintains control and balance, etc. Unfortunately, the answers given to such people appear to be very confusing or totally wrong which results in developing wrong and flawed concepts in their minds. Every person should be familiar with the basic concepts of how airplanes fly so that confusion could be removed when explaining airplane lift to others if questioned. The bedrock of the whole process of airplane lift is formed when the gigantic wings of the plane divert the air down moving against its direction. This paper attempts to explain how important aerodynamic principles are involved in the flying process, how managing control of balance proves to be the most crucial step, and also discusses the forces which help the planes stay in the air and land back on earth. Aerodynamics is the study of forces as a result of which objects get able to fly in the air and this is also discussed in the paper in an effort to explain the whole process of how planes fly. It is very important for everyone to be familiar with the physical demonstration or physical description of the airplane lift. According to Bernoulli’s principle which is thought by many to form the backbone of flying process, air keeps speeding up as the pressure starts lowering which is the reason why a plane keeps going up as the air speed becomes stronger and faster over the top of the huge plane wings as a result of which a region of low pressure is created. As the air goes faster and a region of low pressure is created, the wings of an airplane generate lift and movement is made up through the thin air. It is no secret that humans have always remained interested in aerodynamics which is why two American men widely known as the Wright brothers managed in inventing the world’s first airplane after conducting their experiments at length using the aerodynamic principles. As mentioned before, control forms the most crucial factor when analyzing the flying process and though the Wright brothers were not the first to be involved in the experimental aircraft, still they have the honor to be the first people to invent control necessary for managing the aircraft balance. The concept of fixed-wing powered flight was totally impossible before the Wright brothers invented aircraft controls and made the first fully controlled, balanced, and powered flight, thus bringing a turning point in the history. The most important part of the invention undoubtedly was the three-axis control which helped immensely in lifting the airplane from the ground up into the air. The job of the three-axis control was to help the pilot in steering the jet in an appropriate manner and maintain its control in a way that the flight would remain successful and uninterrupted. Now the use of the three-axis control to steer the aircraft and maintain its equilibrium has become a standard and a firm principle in the flying process. Same goes for the fixed-wing aircraft of all other kinds where the tool of three-axis control is still used essentially. The concept of heavier-than-air human flight was totally unimaginable before the aerodynamic principles were applied practically. Most of the flight problems used to occur because there was no flight control in those days when engineers and researchers did not know much about exercising control over the aircraft balance. But, with explanation provided by the Wright brothers regarding the flight control options and methods, most of the flight problems got resolved as a very reliable way of pilot control was shown to the world through the three-axis control. Actually the main mistake made by earlier aeronautical engineers and flying enthusiasts was that the main emphasis was again and again laid on designing and constructing powerful engines instead of focusing on pilot control with the result that no matter how much powerful an aircraft engine used to be, equilibrium could not be achieved. This shows that pilot control or the three-axis control forms a very important factor in the flying process and should be included in the explanation given by someone regarding how a plane manages to fly and stay in the air. Save aircraft equilibrium, another important thing to discuss is how the plane wings get able to generate lift in the first place. In an order to understand and acknowledge the flying process thoroughly, discussing the factor of lift generated by plane wings remains highly important. Here, Newton’s third law can be applied according to which there is absolutely an equal and opposite reaction for every action. Therefore, the plane wings move up against the air pressure and therefore generate lift as of course, a wing has to do something to the air that it would react in an equal and opposite manner and lift would be generated. In accordance with Newton’s third law of motion, what the wing does to the air is the actual action and the lift generated would be called a reaction of the air (Anderson and Eberhardt). According to another vision, there is no action made by the wing rather it is the action made by the air that it approaches the wing, passes over it, and bends down. The reaction, simply, is the lift generated by the wing. In all the pictures seen in flight manuals all over the world, it is seen that the air approaches the plane wing in a straight fashion and then bends around it in order to leave behind the wing. This bending of the air over the wing causes a reaction and generates the lift. Another important point worth mentioning here is the vertical or downward velocity of the air which plays a huge role in giving the wing lift and helping a plane stay in the air unperturbed. As a wing lifts up, the air diverts down. Now, the change in velocity or momentum of that air which is drifted down by the plane wing happens to be equal to the lift generated. In accordance with an alternate form of Newton’s second law of motion, “the lift of a wing is proportional to the amount of air diverted down times the downward velocity of that air” (Anderson and Eberhardt). The air seems to be coming straight at the plane wings as seen by the pilot and the greater the angle of attack made by the air, the greater the vertically velocity, and greater will be the lift generated. Same goes for the plane wing as greater its speed would be, higher will be the momentum gained, and greater will be its vertical velocity. In simpler words, vertical velocity definitely forms an important factor in giving the plane wings the lift they need to survive in the air. Aerodynamics is at the core of nearly everything and every factor involved in the flying process. There are basically four forces in total acting on an airplane that help it move through the air. These four primarily important forces are weight, lift, drag, and thrust and they should be known to everyone as basic principles of the flying process are involved here. First force is the weight of the airplane that is formed by the airplane itself, the public on board, the luggage, and the amount of fuel. Though this weight is taken as collected force still it is actually distributed throughout the plane and directed towards the center of the earth. Now though the weight is distributed throughout the plane, it acts as the center of gravity about which the plane rotates basically. There are two main hurdles put forward once the flying ensues and those are formed by overcoming the weight of the plane and managing its control. Shifting the focus from designing powerful engines to pilot control certainly offered its benefits in the past. The engine of the plane is also very important as it helps in influencing or overcoming the drag of the plane. Its main job is to overcome the plane drag, not to generate lift (NASA). Drag is basically another force which comes into action when the plane moves through the air. As the aircraft moves, the air resists its motion and the resulting force is called drag. During the flight as the plane consumes fuel, the weight of the plane also changes in harmony continuously. As already mentioned, the weight of the plane is distributed throughout the machine yet it acts collectively to form one center of gravity about which the plane rotates. Now, both the weight of the plane and the center of gravity in result fluctuate as fuel is consumed during the flight because fuel also forms part of the weight force. Therefore, the pilot has to remain very alert continuously so as to adjust the plane controls time to time in order to keep the aircraft balanced and smooth. Now to combat the force of weight, there is an opposing force called lift generated by the aircraft. As there exists lift to overcome weight, so does the force of thrust exists to overcome drag. The resisting efforts made by air named as drag are in turn resisted more by the plane through its propulsion system and a force is generated named as thrust which propels the plane onwards. The airplane “must always engage in a tug of war between the opposing forces of lift versus weight and thrust versus drag” (ALLSTAR Network). The job of the pilots is to control all these four forces and keep them well balanced. “The motion of the airplane through the air depends on the relative strength and direction of the forces” (NASA). Summing up, this much remains clear from the above discussion that the entire flying process is really not hard to understand if studied with interest as very simple scientific principles are involved which everybody should know in order to explain the flying process to those who do not know. A combination of pilot control, four basic forces, and some laws aerodynamic principles lays the foundation of the flying process. The whole philosophy or ideology underlining the flying process should not be known by aeronautical engineers alone, rather everyone from all age groups should be familiar with the basics at least so that they may be able to explain the basic concept if asked. Works cited: ALLSTAR Network. “What Makes An Airplane Fly - Level 1.” 12 Mar. 2004. Web. 31 May. 2012. Anderson, David and Eberhardt, Scott. “How Airplanes Fly: A Physical Description of Lift Level 3.” 27 Dec. 2011. Web. 31 May. 2012. NASA. “Welcome to the Beginners Guide to Aerodynamics.” 08 Sep. 2010. Web. 31 May. 2012. Read More