Minute Physics: How Do Airplanes Fly?

plentyofdicesays...

So THIS is how wings work? I am so confused after watching the guy from NASA (paper plane enthusiast guy) explain that no one really has any idea how they work.

lucky760says...

But seriously, I will show videos like this to my boys even at their young age to hopefully get some sciencentric thinking going.

jubuttibsays...

There's some debate on the exact phenomenons at play and their extents, but the gist of it is correct, it's not like they have "no idea" how it works. An airfoil moving through air (or any other fluid, same principles work in water as well) generates a higher pressure below it and a lower pressure above it, which results in lift. This can be done even with simple flat plank by using angle of attack, or more effectively if you shape it like a good airfoil. Similarly the wings in racing cars do the same thing but flipped upside down, pushing the car down to the ground (though exploiting underbody aerodynamics can be much more effective if regulations allow it).

The only thing that really bothered me in the video was the insistence on the angle of attack being required for lift. Some planes are so light and have wings that produce so much lift (due to size and shape), that at high speeds they actually need to have negative angle of attack to fly level. If the plane didn't point down a bit it'd just keep climbing higher and higher.

plentyofdicesaid:

So THIS is how wings work? I am so confused after watching the guy from NASA (paper plane enthusiast guy) explain that no one really has any idea how they work.

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