If you've traveled before, you know the feeling: the unreal sensation of taking off from the ground, like a bird, light as a feather. Reaching higher and higher in altitude until the once immense buildings on the ground are nothing but a little speck in your vision of the vast land stretching for hundreds of miles. With such an experience, it is hard to pay attention to what exactly you are being transported by, and even less its breathtaking, unbelievable, gravity-defying nature. When we look at airplanes today, we see this insanely large, heavy object that is able to fly in the air for a minimum of 4 hours, and in some cases, a maximum of 20 hours! It is quite interesting to think that only about 150 years ago, flying machinery was nothing but an arbitrary thought. But now, one can travel from New York to Paris in about 6 hours. This journey by sea would have taken weeks! One might ask, how can such a gargantuan object fly with such ease, similar to an eagle, which is thousands of times smaller and lighter? Well, the answer is simple...and it's all about simple physics.
Though aircraft themselves are impressive in many ways, their physics are even more spectacular. Essentially, the way planes are able to fly is by generating a lift force from the wings, (which is generated by the forward motion of the aircraft, generated by the thrust of the engines) that is greater than the gravitational force pulling down on the aircraft. This is known rather as the F/W ratio, (Force/Weight). The rule is that if this number is greater than 1.0, the object in question can accelerate vertically. Airplanes need this number to be much higher in order to fly effectively with a high climb rate. Fascinating, isn't it?
So interesting. It is truly amazing!
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