How Planes Fly

How Planes Fly: Lift

How Planes Fly: LiftAir travels further and faster over the wing, creating a low pressure area, which “lifts” the wing up. An airplane’s wings are specially designed to produce the most “lift.”

How Planes Fly: Drag

The nose of the plane is designed to reduce “drag,” or the resistance of the air as the plane moves through the sky. Imagine if the nose of the plane was a block shape instead of a cone – it would put up a lot more resistance! (And it would need a LOT more thrust to push forward.)

How Planes Fly: Thrust Air molecules get sucked into the engine, where they are compressed.

Fuel is injected and fired, causing a controlled explosion.

The explosion is directed out the back of the engine, producing thrust. Newton’s third law of motion in action: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

How Planes Fly: Gravity When you jump up into the air, you don’t stay up – you come back down. That’s the force of gravity working – pulling you back to Earth. Airplanes operate the same way. But the engines and aerodynamics work together to counteract gravity, and keep the plane in the air.