What does this system need to work?
Labs / General Knowledge
How Airplanes Fly
An airplane stays up because moving wings push air downward, and the air pushes the wings upward. Explore how speed and wing angle change that upward force, called lift.
Labs / General Knowledge / How Airplanes Fly
How Airplanes Fly
An airplane stays up because moving wings push air downward, and the air pushes the wings upward. Explore how speed and wing angle change that upward force, called lift.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Everyday objects can seem mysterious until we separate them into simple parts. This model lets you change one factor and see how the whole system responds.
Explore
Try the model
105% lift
Lift and weight are nearly balanced.
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Start slowly. How much wing angle is needed before lift balances the airplane's weight?
- Keep the wing angle fixed and double the speed. What happens to lift?
- Can you find two different combinations of speed and wing angle that produce balanced flight?
- Why must a heavy airplane travel quickly during takeoff?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Describe the system as a simple chain: what goes in, what changes inside, and what comes out. Use one observation from the model as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
Which change had the biggest effect?
How would you explain it to someone else?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.