Aviation Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [aircraft-physics]

Physics as they apply to aircraft. Including aerodynamics, flight dynamics, stability and control, aircraft hydraulic and electric systems, engine thermodynamics.

Physics applicable to aircraft:

  • Aerodynamics
  • Aircraft performance
  • Aircraft systems: air conditioning, hydraulic, electric, fuel, pneumatic.
  • Flight dynamics
  • Stability and control
  • Structures (related to aircraft)
  • Thermodynamics (related to aircraft)
  • Vibration and noise analysis
  • Weight and Balance
409 questions
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Can passenger airliners hover completely motionless in the air?

I've seen many stories of this occuring on r/glitch_in_the_matrix (a popular Reddit). People have been seeing big airliners just paused in the air, not moving. Some of them stopped their car and saw that the planes still weren't moving. I thought an…
Lars Knowles
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Does an aircraft landing on a carrier increase the carrier weight before it touches down?

The same question goes for any runway, but I guess that for small aircraft carriers, one might actually be able to measure the exact point of weight increases (e.g. measure the submersion of the hull). For helicopters, it seems that this is the…
yippy_yay
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What does the “nose-high” product of inertia represent?

I am reading this slide: Source: http://www.stengel.mycpanel.princeton.edu/MAE331Lecture10.pdf Is Izx always considered small and we can assume it is 0, as many texts assume? I need to make this clear: This is the body axis: I assume that G is…
Dat
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What fraction of fuel is consumed just for keeping a plane in the air?

In a typical airliner, what fraction of fuel/power/energy is used for providing lift and overcoming lift-related drag Do the density of the air and the speed through it influence this ratio or do they affect lift and drag equally? If they matter,…
Bart van Heukelom
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Can a fixed-wing plane jump up by blowing air over its wings?

NASA's X-57 electric plane has 12 wing-mounted propellors which drive air past the wing. This video describes how the resulting increased air velocity causes an increase in the amount of lift the wing generates. Suppose the propellors could generate…
mherzl
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Why is the force that moves an airplane forward called THRUST and not PULL?

As we know, there are four forces acting upon an airplane. Thrust ($T$), Drag ($D$), Lift ($L$), and weight ($W$). Since most propeller-driven airplanes over history have had the propeller mounted in the front, the power or forces generated were to…
AirCraft Lover
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2
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Relationship between hover power and climbing power

I've been told that, generally speaking, rotor efficiency increase with rotor diameter. This is because the thrust generated by a helicopter rotor equals the mass of air moved times the delta V of the air moved, while the kinetic energy imparted to…
Preston Becker
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With power off, is it possible to maintain constant altitude for some period of time, until the stall speed is reached?

With power off, is it possible to maintain constant altitude for some period of time, until the 1-G stall speed is reached, i.e. until the stall angle-of-attack is reached? Implicit in the question is the assumption that the initial airspeed is…
quiet flyer
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2
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How much energy is "wasted" in an aeroplane's descent?

In descent, an aircraft must lose both potential energy (in order to get down to the ground) and kinetic energy (in order to land at a safe speed). Weight and drag can take care of that. An unpowered plane will eventually slow down and sink.…
Daniele Procida
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1
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Confusion about Aerodynamic center

suppose, i assume Aerodynamic Center lies at Center of gravity. Then apparently moment by lift will be zero about CoG. But in reality Centre of Pressure may be behind aerodynamic center and still be producing a moment. So isn’t using aerodynamic…
Sachin Chaudhary
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Lateral location of the center of pressure

I am working on a simple flight simulator. For this, I need to calculate aerodynamic forces and apply them to the aircraft. As I understand it, lift and drag act through the wings center of pressure. Unfortunately, all the information that I have…
gue-ni
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Can fighter jets drift on air, and if so what does it look like?

I saw a video of a jet "drifting" from the air. I don't know if it was the quality of the video or my lack of knowledge with maneuvers but it didn't really do much but just fly over but apparently from the comments they were talking about how it was…
IseedeadpeopleNOT
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Bernoulli Principle -- Reversed

The Bernoulli Principle states that as the velocity of a fluid increases, the pressure of that fluid decreases. However what if it were to be reversed: As the velocity of the fluid decreases, the pressure increases; is this possible? I am looking at…
JandyPilot
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Two aircraft with same air speed, blank angle, but different mass, are the radius of turn the same?

Two aircraft with same airspeed, blank angle, but different mass, are the radius of turn the same?
Flying777
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Is Vbg maximum Lift/Drag ratio, or is it really maximum Speed/Drag ratio?

A question about "minimum power" airspeed had me wondering, why not think of "maximum Lift/Drag ratio" as maximum Lift/Thrust ratio. Gliders would be included, as they use gravity for propulsion. It seems that the condition of maintaining linear…
Robert DiGiovanni
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