• The Musical
  • About Take Flight
  • A New Musical Takes Flight
  • An Interview with John Weidman, David Shire, and Richard Maltby, Jr.
  • Writers' Biographies
  • Annotated Credits of Weidman, Shire, and Maltby, Jr.
  • Links
• The Production
  • Emily Mann on Take Flight
  • Performance Schedule
  • Who's Who
  • Director’s Biography
  • The Creative Team
• The History
  • Amelia Earhart
  • Charles Lindbergh
  • The Wright Brothers
  • Timeline of Flight
  • The Science of Flight
• Multimedia
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Audio
  • McCarter Blog
• Press
  • Feature Stories
  • Reviews
• For Students and Educators
  • Core Curriculum Standards
  • Pre-Show Discussion
  • Post-Show Discussion

The Science of Flight

Four forces are at work in flight: weight (a downward force caused by gravity), lift (an upward force caused by air moving over the wings), drag (a backward force caused by air resistance), and thrust (a forward force caused by an engine).

For a plane to fly, there are two requirements. First, the force of lift must exceed that of weight, so that the plane goes up instead of down. All air exerts pressure, but the faster it moves, the less it exerts. When a wing cuts through the air, it disturbs the air stream. Because the wing’s surface is curved, the air traveling over it has farther to go than the air below it and so must move faster. As a result, the air above the wing exerts less pressure than the air below it. The air below the wing pushes up more air than the air above it, resulting in the upward force of lift.

Additionally, the force of thrust must overcome that of drag. This is accomplished by the thrust generated by the engine. The engine exerts enough thrust to overcome drag, so the airplane goes forward and not back.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal109/htf/activities/forcesofflight/web/index.html
http://www.yesmag.ca/focus/flight/flight_science.html