Flight

Natural flight: a hummingbird

Human-invented flight: a Royal Jordanian Airlines
Boeing 787

Flight is the process by which an object

moves, through an atmosphere or beyond
it, as in the case of spaceflight. This can
be achieved by generating aerodynamic
lift, propulsive thrust, aerostatically using
buoyancy, or by ballistic movement.

Many things fly, from natural aviators such

as birds, bats and insects to human
inventions such as missiles, aircraft such
as airplanes, helicopters and balloons, to
rockets such as spacecraft.
The engineering aspects of flight are the
purview of aerospace engineering which is
subdivided into aeronautics, the study of
vehicles that travel through the air, and
astronautics, the study of vehicles that
travel through space, and in ballistics, the
study of the flight of projectiles.

Types of flight
Buoyant flight

An airship flies because the upward force, from air

displacement, is equal or greater than the force of
gravity
g y

Humans have managed to construct

lighter than air vehicles that raise off the
ground and fly, due to their buoyancy in air.

An aerostat is a system that remains aloft

primarily through the use of buoyancy to
give an aircraft the same overall density as
air. Aerostats include free balloons,
airships, and moored balloons. An
aerostat's main structural component is its
envelope, a lightweight skin that encloses
a volume of lifting gas[1][2] to provide
buoyancy, to which other components are
attached.
Aerostats are so named because they use
"aerostatic" lift, a buoyant force that does
not require lateral movement through the
surrounding air mass to effect a lifting
force. By contrast, aerodynes primarily use
aerodynamic lift, which requires the lateral
movement of at least some part of the
aircraft through the surrounding air mass.

Aerodynamic flight

Unpowered flight versus powered

flight

Some things that fly don't generate

propulsive thrust through the air, for
example, the flying squirrel. This is termed
gliding. Some other things can exploit
rising air to climb such as raptors (when
gliding) and man-made sailplane gliders.
This is termed soaring. However most
other birds and all powered aircraft need a
source of propulsion to climb. This is
termed powered flight.

Animal flight

Female mallard duck

Tau emerald dragonfly

Kea

The only groups of living things that use

powered flight are birds, insects, and bats,
while many groups have evolved gliding.
The extinct Pterosaurs, an order of reptiles
contemporaneous with the dinosaurs,
were also very successful flying animals.
Each of these groups' wings evolved
independently. The wings of the flying
vertebrate groups are all based on the
forelimbs, but differ signicantly in
structure; those of insects are
hypothesized to be highly modied
versions of structures that form gills in
most other groups of arthropods.[3]

Bats are the only mammals capable of

sustaining level flight.[4] However, there are
several gliding mammals which are able to
glide from tree to tree using fleshy
membranes between their limbs; some
can travel hundreds of meters in this way
with very little loss in height. Flying frogs
use greatly enlarged webbed feet for a
similar purpose, and there are flying lizards
which fold out their mobile ribs into a pair
of flat gliding surfaces. "Flying" snakes
also use mobile ribs to flatten their body
into an aerodynamic shape, with a back
and forth motion much the same as they
use on the ground.

Flying sh can glide using enlarged wing-

like ns, and have been observed soaring
for hundreds of meters. It is thought that
this ability was chosen by natural selection
because it was an effective means of
escape from underwater predators. The
longest recorded flight of a flying sh was
45 seconds.[5]

Most birds fly (see bird flight), with some

exceptions. The largest birds, the ostrich
and the emu, are earthbound, as were the
now-extinct dodos and the Phorusrhacids,
which were the dominant predators of
South America in the Cenozoic era. The
non-flying penguins have wings adapted
for use under water and use the same
wing movements for swimming that most
other birds use for flight. Most small
flightless birds are native to small islands,
and lead a lifestyle where flight would
offer little advantage.
Among living animals that fly, the
wandering albatross has the greatest
wingspan, up to 3.5 meters (11 feet); the
great bustard has the greatest weight,
topping at 21 kilograms (46 pounds).[6]

Most species of insects can fly as adults.

Insect flight makes use of either of two
basic aerodynamic models: creating a
leading edge vortex, found in most insects,
and using clap and fling, found in very
small insects such as thrips.[7][8]

Mechanical
Mechanical flight: A Robinson R22 Beta helicopter

Mechanical flight is the use of a machine

to fly. These machines include aircraft
such as airplanes, gliders, helicopters,
autogyros, airships, balloons, ornithopters
as well as spacecraft. Gliders are capable
of unpowered flight. Another form of
mechanical flight is para-sailing where a
parachute-like object is pulled by a boat. In
an airplane, lift is created by the wings; the
shape of the wings of the airplane are
designed specially for the type of flight
desired. There are different types of wings:
tempered, semi-tempered, sweptback,
rectangular and elliptical. An aircraft wing
is sometimes called an airfoil, which is a
device that creates lift when air flows
across it.

Supersonic

Supersonic flight is flight faster than the

speed of sound. Supersonic flight is
associated with the formation of shock
waves that form a sonic boom that can be
heard from the ground,[9] and is frequently
startling. This shockwave takes quite a lot
of energy to create and this makes
supersonic flight generally less efcient
than subsonic flight at about 85% of the
speed of sound.

Hypersonic

Hypersonic flight is very high speed flight

where the heat generated by the
compression of the air due to the motion
through the air causes chemical changes
to the air. Hypersonic flight is achieved by
reentering spacecraft such as the Space
Shuttle and Soyuz.
The International Space Station in earth orbit

Ballistic

Atmospheric

Some things generate little or no lift and

move only or mostly under the action of
momentum, gravity, air drag and in some
cases thrust. This is termed ballistic flight.
Examples include balls, arrows, bullets,
reworks etc.
Spaceflight

Essentially an extreme form of ballistic

flight, spaceflight is the use of space
technology to achieve the flight of
spacecraft into and through outer space.
Examples include ballistic missiles, orbital
spaceflight etc.

Spaceflight is used in space exploration,

and also in commercial activities like
space tourism and satellite
telecommunications. Additional non-
commercial uses of spaceflight include
space observatories, reconnaissance
satellites and other earth observation
satellites.

A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket

launch, which provides the initial thrust to
overcome the force of gravity and propels
the spacecraft from the surface of the
Earth.[10] Once in space, the motion of a
spacecraftboth when unpropelled and
when under propulsionis covered by the
area of study called astrodynamics. Some
spacecraft remain in space indenitely,
some disintegrate during atmospheric
reentry, and others reach a planetary or
lunar surface for landing or impact.
History
Many human cultures have built devices
that fly, from the earliest projectiles such
as stones and spears,[11][12] the
boomerang in Australia, the hot air
Kongming lantern, and kites.

Aviation

George Cayley studied flight scientically

in the rst half of the 19th century,[13][14][15]
and in the second half of the 19th century
Otto Lilienthal made over 200 gliding
flights and was also one of the rst to
understand flight scientically. His work
was replicated and extended by the Wright
brothers who made gliding flights and
nally the rst controlled and extended,
manned powered flights.[16]

Spaceflight

Spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight

became a reality in the 20th Century
following theoretical and practical
breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
and Robert H. Goddard. The rst orbital
spaceflight was in 1957[17] and Yuri
Gagarin was carried aboard the rst
manned orbital spaceflight in 1961.[18]

Physics
Lighter-than-air airships are able to fly without any
major input of energy

There are different approaches to flight. If

an object has a lower density than air, then
it is buoyant and is able to float in the air
without expending energy. A heavier than
air craft, known as an aerodyne, includes
flighted animals and insects, xed-wing
aircraft and rotorcraft. Because the craft is
heavier than air, it must generate lift to
overcome its weight. The wind resistance
caused by the craft moving through the air
is called drag and is overcome by
propulsive thrust except in the case of
gliding.

Some vehicles also use thrust for flight, for

example rockets and Harrier Jump Jets.

Finally, momentum dominates the flight of

ballistic flying objects.

Forces

Main forces on a heavier-than-air aircraft

Forces relevant to flight are[19]

Propulsive thrust: (except in gliders)

Lift: created by the reaction to an airflow
Drag: created by aerodynamic friction
Weight: created by gravity
Buoyancy: for lighter than air flight

These forces must be balanced for stable

flight to occur.

Thrust

Forces on an aerofoil cross section

A xed-wing aircraft generates forward
thrust when air is pushed in the direction
opposite to flight. This can be done in
several ways including by the spinning
blades of a propeller, or a rotating fan
pushing air out from the back of a jet
engine, or by ejecting hot gases from a
rocket engine.[20] The forward thrust is
proportional to the mass of the airstream
multiplied by the difference in velocity of
the airstream. Reverse thrust can be
generated to aid braking after landing by
reversing the pitch of variable-pitch
propeller blades, or using a thrust reverser
on a jet engine. Rotary wing aircraft and
thrust vectoring V/STOL aircraft use
engine thrust to support the weight of the
aircraft, and vector sum of this thrust fore
and aft to control forward speed.

Lift

Lift is dened as the component of the total

aerodynamic force perpendicular to the flow direction,
and drag is the component parallel to the flow
direction
In the context of an air flow relative to a
flying body, the lift force is the component
of the aerodynamic force that is
perpendicular to the flow direction.[21]
Aerodynamic lift results when the wing
causes the surrounding air to be deflected
- the air then causes a force on the wing in
the opposite direction, in accordance with
Newton's third law of motion.

Lift is commonly associated with the wing

of an aircraft, although lift is also
generated by rotors on rotorcraft (which
are effectively rotating wings, performing
the same function without requiring that
the aircraft move forward through the air).
While common meanings of the word "lift"
suggest that lift opposes gravity,
aerodynamic lift can be in any direction.
When an aircraft is cruising for example,
lift does oppose gravity, but lift occurs at
an angle when climbing, descending or
banking. On high-speed cars, the lift force
is directed downwards (called "down-
force") to keep the car stable on the road.

Lift can also occur in a different way if the

air is not still, especially if there is an
updraft due to heat ("thermals") or wind
blowing along sloping terrain or other
meteorological conditions. This form of lift
permits soaring and is particularly
important for gliding. It is used by birds
and gliders to stay in the air for long
periods with little effort.

Drag

For a solid object moving through a fluid,

the drag is the component of the net
aerodynamic or hydrodynamic force acting
opposite to the direction of the
movement.[22][23][24][25] Therefore, drag
opposes the motion of the object, and in a
powered vehicle it must be overcome by
thrust. The process which creates lift also
causes some drag.
Lift-to-drag ratio

Speed and drag relationships for a typical aircraft

Aerodynamic lift is created by the motion

of an aerodynamic object (wing) through
the air, which due to its shape and angle
deflects the air. For sustained straight and
level flight, lift must be equal and opposite
to weight. In general, long narrow wings
are able deflect a large amount of air at a
slow speed, whereas smaller wings need a
higher forward speed to deflect an
equivalent amount of air and thus
generate an equivalent amount of lift.
Large cargo aircraft tend to use longer
wings with higher angles of attack,
whereas supersonic aircraft tend to have
short wings and rely heavily on high
forward speed to generate lift.

However, this lift (deflection) process

inevitably causes a retarding force called
drag. Because lift and drag are both
aerodynamic forces, the ratio of lift to drag
is an indication of the aerodynamic
efciency of the airplane. The lift to drag
ratio is the L/D ratio, pronounced "L over D
ratio." An airplane has a high L/D ratio if it
produces a large amount of lift or a small
amount of drag. The lift/drag ratio is
determined by dividing the lift coefcient
by the drag coefcient, CL/CD. [26]

The lift coefcient Cl is equal to the lift L

divided by the (density r times half the
velocity V squared times the wing area A).
[Cl = L / (A * .5 * r * V^2)] The lift
coefcient is also affected by the
compressibility of the air, which is much
greater at higher speeds, so velocity V is
not a linear function. Compressibility is
also affected by the shape of the aircraft
surfaces. [27]
The drag coefcient Cd is equal to the
drag D divided by the (density r times half
the velocity V squared times the reference
area A). [Cd = D / (A * .5 * r * V^2)] [28]

Lift-to-drag ratios for practical aircraft vary

from about 4:1 for vehicles and birds with
relatively short wings, up to 60:1 or more
for vehicles with very long wings, such as
gliders. A greater angle of attack relative
to the forward movement also increases
the extent of deflection, and thus
generates extra lift. However a greater
angle of attack also generates extra drag.
Lift/drag ratio also determines the glide
ratio and gliding range. Since the glide
ratio is based only on the relationship of
the aerodynamics forces acting on the
aircraft, aircraft weight will not affect it.
The only effect weight has is to vary the
time that the aircraft will glide for a
heavier aircraft gliding at a higher airspeed
will arrive at the same touchdown point in
a shorter time. [29]

Buoyancy

Air pressure acting up against an object in

air is greater than the pressure above
pushing down. The buoyancy, in both
cases, is equal to the weight of fluid
displaced - Archimedes' principle holds for
air just as it does for water.

A cubic meter of air at ordinary

atmospheric pressure and room
temperature has a mass of about 1.2
kilograms, so its weight is about 12
newtons. Therefore, any 1-cubic-meter
object in air is buoyed up with a force of
12 newtons. If the mass of the 1-cubic-
meter object is greater than 1.2 kilograms
(so that its weight is greater than 12
newtons), it falls to the ground when
released. If an object of this size has a
mass less than 1.2 kilograms, it rises in
the air. Any object that has a mass that is
less than the mass of an equal volume of
air will rise in air - in other words, any
object less dense than air will rise.

Thrust to weight ratio

Thrust-to-weight ratio is, as its name

suggests, the ratio of instantaneous thrust
to weight (where weight means weight at
the Earth's standard acceleration ).[30] It
is a dimensionless parameter
characteristic of rockets and other jet
engines and of vehicles propelled by such
engines (typically space launch vehicles
and jet aircraft).
If the thrust-to-weight ratio is greater than
the local gravity strength (expressed in gs),
then flight can occur without any forward
motion or any aerodynamic lift being
required.

If the thrust-to-weight ratio times the lift-

to-drag ratio is greater than local gravity
then takeoff using aerodynamic lift is
possible.

Flight dynamics
Pitch

Yaw

Roll
The upward tilt of the wings and tailplane of an
aircraft, as seen on this Boeing 737, is called dihedral
angle

Flight dynamics is the science of air and

space vehicle orientation and control in
three dimensions. The three critical flight
dynamics parameters are the angles of
rotation in three dimensions about the
vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch,
roll and yaw (See Tait-Bryan rotations for
an explanation).
The control of these dimensions can
involve a horizontal stabilizer (i.e. "a tail"),
ailerons and other movable aerodynamic
devices which control angular stability i.e.
flight attitude (which in turn affects
altitude, heading). Wings are often angled
slightly upwards- they have "positive
dihedral angle" which gives inherent roll
stabilization.

Energy efciency

To create thrust so as to be able to gain

height, and to push through the air to
overcome the drag associated with lift all
takes energy. Different objects and
creatures capable of flight vary in the
efciency of their muscles, motors and
how well this translates into forward
thrust.

Propulsive efciency determines how

much energy vehicles generate from a unit
of fuel.[31][32]

Range

The range that powered flight articles can

achieve is ultimately limited by their drag,
as well as how much energy they can store
on board and how efciently they can turn
that energy into propulsion.[33]
For powered aircraft the useful energy is
determined by their fuel fraction- what
percentage of the takeoff weight is fuel, as
well as the specic energy of the fuel
used.

Power-to-weight ratio

All animals and devices capable of

sustained flight need relatively high power-
to-weight ratios to be able to generate
enough lift and/or thrust to achieve take
off.

Takeoff and landing

Vehicles that can fly can have different
ways to takeoff and land. Conventional
aircraft accelerate along the ground until
sufcient lift is generated for takeoff, and
reverse the process for landing. Some
aircraft can take off at low speed; this is
called a short takeoff. Some aircraft such
as helicopters and Harrier jump jets can
take off and land vertically. Rockets also
usually take off and land vertically, but
some designs can land horizontally.

Guidance, navigation and

control
Navigation
Navigation is the systems necessary to
calculate current position (e.g. compass,
GPS, LORAN, star tracker, inertial
measurement unit, and altimeter).

In aircraft, successful air navigation

involves piloting an aircraft from place to
place without getting lost, breaking the
laws applying to aircraft, or endangering
the safety of those on board or on the
ground.

The techniques used for navigation in the

air will depend on whether the aircraft is
flying under the visual flight rules (VFR) or
the instrument flight rules (IFR). In the
latter case, the pilot will navigate
exclusively using instruments and radio
navigation aids such as beacons, or as
directed under radar control by air trafc
control. In the VFR case, a pilot will largely
navigate using dead reckoning combined
with visual observations (known as
pilotage), with reference to appropriate
maps. This may be supplemented using
radio navigation aids.

Guidance

A guidance system is a device or group of

devices used in the navigation of a ship,
aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or other
moving object. Typically, guidance is
responsible for the calculation of the
vector (i.e., direction, velocity) toward an
objective.

Control

A conventional xed-wing aircraft flight

control system consists of flight control
surfaces, the respective cockpit controls,
connecting linkages, and the necessary
operating mechanisms to control an
aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft engine
controls are also considered as flight
controls as they change speed.
Trafc

In the case of aircraft, air trafc is

controlled by air trafc control systems.

Collision avoidance is the process of

controlling spacecraft to try to prevent
collisions.

Flight safety
Air safety is a term encompassing the
theory, investigation and categorization of
flight failures, and the prevention of such
failures through regulation, education and
training. It can also be applied in the
context of campaigns that inform the
public as to the safety of air travel.

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Flight.

Aerodynamics
Levitation
Transvection (flying)

References
Notes
1. Walker 2000, p. 541. Quote: the gas-bag
of a balloon or airship.
2. Coulson-Thomas 1976, p. 281. Quote:
fabric enclosing gas-bags of airship.
3. Averof, Michalis. "Evolutionary origin of
insect wings from ancestral gills." Nature,
Volume 385, Issue 385, February 1997, pp.
627630.
4. World Book Student. Chicago: World
Book. Retrieved: April 29, 2011.
5. "BBC article and video of flying sh."
BBC, May 20, 2008. Retrieved: May 20,
2008.
6. "Swan Identication." Archived 2006-
10-31 at the Wayback Machine. The
Trumpeter Swan Society. Retrieved:
January 3, 2012.
7. Wang, Z. Jane (2005). "DISSECTING
INSECT FLIGHT" (pdf). Annual Review of
Fluid Mechanics. Annual Reviews. 37: 183
210. Bibcode:2005AnRFM..37..183W .
doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.36.050802.1219
40 .
8. Sane, Sanjay P. (2003). "The
aerodynamics of insect flight" (PDF). The
Journal of Experimental Biology. 206 (23):
41914208. doi:10.1242/jeb.00663 .
PMID14581590 .
9. Bern, Peter. "Concorde: You asked a
pilot." BBC, October 23, 2003.
10. Spitzmiller, Ted (2007). Astronautics: A
Historical Perspective of Mankind's Efforts
to Conquer the Cosmos . Apogee Books.
ISBN9781894959667.
11. "Archytas of Tar entum." Archived
December 26, 2008, at the Wayback
Machine. Technology Museum of
Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece/
Retrieved: May 6, 2012.
12. "Ancient history." Automata.
Retrieved:May 6, 2012.
13. "Sir George Cayley" .
Flyingmachines.org. Retrieved 26 July
2009. Sir George Cayley is one of the most
important people in the history of
aeronautics. Many consider him the rst
true scientic aerial investigator and the
rst person to understand the underlying
principles and forces of flight.
14. "The Pioneers: Aviation and
Airmodelling" . Retrieved 26 July 2009. Sir
George Cayley, is sometimes called the
'Father of Aviation'. A pioneer in his eld, he
is credited with the rst major breakthrough
in heavier-than-air flight. He was the rst to
identify the four aerodynamic forces of
flight weight, lift, drag, and thrust and
their relationship and also the rst to build
a successful human carrying glider.
15. "U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
Sir George Cayley" . Archived from the
original on 20 September 2008. Retrieved
10 September 2008. Sir George Cayley,
born in 1773, is sometimes called the
Father of Aviation. A pioneer in his eld,
Cayley literally has two great spurts of
aeronautical creativity, separated by years
during which he did little with the subject.
He was the rst to identify the four
aerodynamic forces of flight weight, lift,
drag, and thrust and their relationship. He
was also the rst to build a successful
human-carrying glider. Cayley described
many of the concepts and elements of the
modern aeroplane and was the rst to
understand and explain in engineering
terms the concepts of lift and thrust.
16. "Orville Wright's Personal Letters on
Aviation." Shapell Manuscript Foundation,
(Chicago), 2012.
17.
https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/sputorig.
html
18. "Gagarin anniversary." NASA.
Retrieved: May 6, 2012.
19. "Four forces on an aeroplane." NASA.
Retrieved: January 3, 2012.
20. http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-
12/airplane/newton3.html
21. "Denition of lift." Archived 2009-02-
03 at the Wayback Machine. NASA.
Retrieved: May 6, 2012.
22. French 1970, p. 210.
23. "Basic flight physics." Berkeley
University. Retrieved: May 6, 2012.
24. "What is Drag?" NASA. Retrieved: May
6, 2012.
25. "Motions of particles through fluids."
Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback
Machine. lorien.ncl.ac. Retrieved: May 6,
2012.
26. The Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics -
NASA Glenn Research Center
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/airplane/ldrat.html
27. The Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics -
NASA Glenn Research Center
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/airplane/liftco.html
28. The Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics -
NASA Glenn Research Center
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/airplane/dragco.html
29. The Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics -
NASA Glenn Research Center
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/airplane/ldrat.html
30. Sutton and Biblarz 2000, p. 442. Quote:
"thrust-to-weight ratio F/W0 is a
dimensionless parameter that is identical
to the acceleration of the rocket propulsion
system (expressed in multiples of g0) if it
could fly by itself in a gravity free vacuum."
31. ch10-3 "History." NASA. Retrieved: May
6, 2012.
32. Honicke et al. 1968
33.
http://web.mit.edu/16.unied/www/FALL/t
hermodynamics/notes/node98.html
Bibliography
Coulson-Thomas, Colin. The Oxford
Illustrated Dictionary. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1976, First edition
1975, ISBN978-0-19-861118-9.
French, A. P. Newtonian Mechanics (The
M.I.T. Introductory Physics Series) (1st
ed.). New York: W. W. Norton &
Company Inc., 1970.
Honicke, K., R. Lindner, P. Anders, M.
Krahl, H. Hadrich and K. Rohricht.
Beschreibung der Konstruktion der
Triebwerksanlagen. Berlin: Interflug,
1968.
Sutton, George P. Oscar Biblarz. Rocket
Propulsion Elements. New York: Wiley-
Interscience, 2000 (7th edition).
ISBN978-0-471-32642-7.
Walker, Peter. Chambers Dictionary of
Science and Technology. Edinburgh:
Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2000,
 First edition 1998. ISBN978-0-550-
14110-1.

External links
Look up flight in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for

Flights.

Flight travel guide from Wikivoyage

'Birds in Flight and Aeroplanes' by

Evolutionary Biologist and trained
Engineer John Maynard-Smith Freeview
video provided by the Vega Science
Trust.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Flight&oldid=809311336"

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