Aeronautics-A dream to fly.

Fundamental Forces of Flight. Primarily 4 forces act on an aircraft: Weight Lift Thrust Drag   Fig 1: Fundamental forces of flight WEIGHT: Weight of the aircraft is the force that acts at the center of gravity in downward direction (in the direction of acceleration due to gravity ). The direction is fixed and doesn’t change during the course of flight, as acceleration due to gravity always point towards the center of earth. LIFT: To counter the weight and allow the aircraft to be airborne and not to fall back to earth surface, aircraft must generate force opposite to weight and which is equal to or greater than weight. The lift force is generated by the wings when the airflow causes pressure difference in the upper and lower part of wing i.e. high pressure at lower part of wing and low pressure at upper part. This pressure difference generates lift. Lift acts perpendicular to the direction of motion of aircraft. THRUST: Thrust is the force that propels (or pulls)

How do Airplanes Fly? Every aviation enthusiast’s first question probably was how airplanes fly? So in this blog I’m writing about the physics and science behind how airplanes fly. First, let’s see forces that can make the airplane stay in air. 1.       We need a force that will pull the aircraft so it moves forward. Let’s call this force ‘ Thrust’ 2.       We need a force that will balance the weight of aircraft so that it takes off from ground, stays in air and don’t fall back to earth surface. Let’s call this force ‘ Lift’ Thrust, as we know is provided by the engines, but how is lift generated? Yes, the answer is WINGS. But how do wings generate lift? Fig 1: A simple wing of airplane If we look at the wing as shown in Fig 1, when looked from a side the profile looks as the figure 2. This is a special geometry called ‘ airfoil ’ Fig 2: Cross section of wing: Airfoil So, what’s so special about the airfoil? The airfoil as seen in Fig 2 has the length at l

Hello Aviation Enthusiast!      This is Nehal Kankanawadi, final year undergrad of B.E Aeronautical Engineering at MVJ College of Engineering, Bengaluru. I welcome you all to my Blog where we together learn and grow our knowledge and interest in the field of aeronautics. Cheers! Hoping you would stick around.