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I have a little question. If I mark an X in the center of a passenger airplane, and try to fly a drone from the X mark in the moving passenger airplane (800-900 km/h), what will happen to the drone? Is it going to fly up and standstill above the X mark? Or will it fly up above the X mark then gradually heading to the end of the plane? Put aside the FAA rules and something like that.

Qmechanic
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Alvin Wijaya
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1 Answers1

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The drone flies by its propellers exercising force against the air inside the airplane. It flies with respect to the air inside the airplane. Since the air is being carried by the airplane, the drone will fly with respect to the airplane. It'll fly forward or in whichever direction you point it, with respect to the X. Assuming the airplane is airtight.

Bosoneando
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Bob Bee
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    Minor detail. Everithing assumes the airplane is at constant velocity. If the airplane were accelerating then the drone would drift a wrt the X – Joafigue Jun 27 '16 at 05:27
  • @Joafigue Finer minor detail. Everithing above assumes the airplane accelerating on plane perpendicular to gravitational force. If the airplane were accelerating in the direction of gravitational force then the drone will not drift. –  Jun 27 '16 at 07:33
  • @alvinwijaya. Glad to be of help. In physics some intuition (in this case the air moves with the airplane, more or less) is often not stated and you have to figure out what they don't tell you. – Bob Bee Jun 27 '16 at 22:55