How do planes fly?
How do planes fly? Backs up what Johnny was saying about how wings work (Explain That Stuff!)The physics of sailing (UNSW)You can sail into the wind, but not exactly upwind - The physics of sailing (Physics Buzz blog, Physics Central)The hipster PDA: Merlin Mann's index card system (43 Folders)What is turbulence? From a fluid dynamics perspective (Wikipedia)Turbulence - everything you need to know (Patrick Smith's Ask the Pilot)Air turbulence - how dangerous is it? (livescience)What is tacking in sailing? (Wikipedia)What is tacking in sailing? (School of Sailing)The spice routes were the 'maritime silk road' (UNESCO)The search for new sea routes for the spice trade really kicked off in the 1500s (Encyclopaedia Britannica)Trade routes followed the 'trade winds' (Wikipedia)Prevailing winds blow from a certain direction over a point on the Earth's surface (Wikipedia)How do planes fly upside down? (Physics StackExchange)Flying upside down (Air & Space, Smithsonian)Wing flaps & slats (NASA)More flaps: Wing flaps for lift augmentation in aircraft (Decoded Science)What is drag? (NASA)Aerodynamics, an introduction - including a description of drag (Explain That Stuff!)Four forces affect things that fly: weight, lift, thrust, drag (Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum)Powered aircraft (Wikipedia)Unpowered aircraft (Wikipedia)Unpowered flight (Wikipedia)Flight (Wikipedia)What is autorotation? (Wikipedia)The Gimli glider: Air Canada plane that glided to land on a race track after running out of fuel in 1983 (Wikipedia)The Gimli glider was recently sold...after a further 25 years of service! (Financial Post)Video of an aborted landing just a few feet off the ground - also shows how much wings flex (YouTube)Pilots have detailed checklists (Patrick Smith's Ask the Pilot)How a glider works...Remember the space shuttle? It was a glider! (NASA)Birds, thermals & soaring flight (Aerospaceweb.org)Birds of prey riding thermals (YouTube)Plane wings are pretty flexible (Wired)Turbulence & why you should buckle up (Civil Aviation Safety Authority)Headwinds & tailwinds (Wikipedia)Headwinds allow take off & landing on shorter amounts of runway (United Hub)Airport design & naming runways (NASA)Runway numbers explained (Atlas Obscura, YouTube)Airspeed versus ground speed (Aerospaceweb.org)Planes can levitate on the ground if it's windy enough (YouTube)How does a wind sock work? A pilot explains (YouTube)What is a jumbo jet? A Boeing 747 (Wikipedia)Flaps during takeoff & landing (Wikipedia)Thrust reversal (Wikipedia)Thrust reversal (Purdue University)Stopping the A380 (Air & Space Smithsonian)Rolls Royce jet engines (Rolls Royce)Picture: A Boeing 717 with 'petal' thrust reversal on engines (CQ Plane Spotting)A database of paper aeroplanes with folding instructions (Fold'NFly)What do winglets do? i.e. The flipped up bits on the end of plane wings (NASA)Winglets or 'wing tip devices' (Wikipedia)Why do golf balls have dimples? (livescience)Shark scales create tiny whirlpools for speedy swimming (livescience)Proper scientific paper: Shark-skin surfaces for fluid-drag reduction in turbulent flow (The Royal Society)Bros had flipped up fringes like winglets (Old School Pannini)What is a jet stream? (livescience)What is drift diving? (PADI)Flight times between New York & London slashed by jet stream's power (ABC Australia)The Flat Earth SocietyWhat is a 'great circle' & how are they used for flight routes? (AeroSavvy)Air distance & flight time calculator (Great Circle Mapper)There are flight routes over the North Pole, but probably not Antarctica (Wikipedia)Fonzie cool (YouTube)Chesley Sullenberger: the super cool pilot that landed the plane on the Hudson River (Wikipedia)US Airways flight 1549 that landed on the Hudson River (Wikipedia)British Airways flight 9 whose engines stalled in an ash cloud in 1982: Lucy was exaggerating slightly, it wasn't a 2-hour emergency...but still pretty serious (Wikipedia)Flying or driving: Which Is safer? (Science 2.0)Flying, driving or trains: Which Is safer? (AirlineReporter)Smithsonian National Air & Space MuseumThe Wright Brothers 'invented' aviation in 1903 (The Wright Bros)The Apollo Lunar Module landed on the moon in 1969 (Wikipedia)Sydney to London in 4 hours just got another step closer (News.com.au)Australian scientists just successfully launched a jet which could fly from Sydney to London in 2 hours (Business Insider Australia)The Concorde supersonic jet (Wikipedia)Concorde: 40 fascinating facts (The Telegraph)Corrections
Sorry Lucy, you mixed up Newton's 3rd & 1st laws: The 3rd law is relevant to plane wings...'equal & opposite reaction' (NASA)Sorry Johnny, helicopters CAN fly without power via 'autorotation' (copters.com)Cheeky review? (If we may be so bold)
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