Is it possible that a aircraft can fly without having wings? I am wondering if somehow it can fly then will aircraft will be able to maintain the balance.
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highly related: Can an aircraft fly without wings and stabilizers? – Manu H May 15 '20 at 20:07
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highly related: Do airplanes need wings? – Manu H May 15 '20 at 20:08
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Yes. Soyuz, Shenzhou and Apollo reentry vehicles and all sorts of missiles. And balloons. – user3528438 May 15 '20 at 20:20
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2"With enough thrust, anything can fly" – DeepSpace May 15 '20 at 21:05
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Yes, they can, these are called lifting body aircraft.
Source: Wikimedia
They maintain directional stability using the control surfaces near the tail.
If you like retro documentaries, here's one on YouTube about lifting bodies done by NASA.
As for aircraft that normally have wings, they can sometimes fly when losing (most) of one of them:
Ron Beyer
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Dunno if the F-15 story would qualify on this one as that guy was just very lucky. – Romeo_4808N May 16 '20 at 00:45
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1Why not? It wasn't all luck, the F-15 is basically a lifting body at higher speeds, I believe they found that the engine intakes in this case were providing a lot of lift. Either way it's just an example of aircraft flying without both wings. – Ron Beyer May 16 '20 at 01:16




