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The aerodynamic force on a powered airplane is commonly represented by three vectors: thrust, lift and drag. [3]: 151 [1]: § 14.2 The other force acting on an aircraft during flight is its weight, which is a body force and not an aerodynamic force.
The thrust-to-weight ratio and lift-to-drag ratio are the two most important parameters in determining the performance of an aircraft. The thrust-to-weight ratio varies continually during a flight. Thrust varies with throttle setting, airspeed, altitude, air temperature, etc. Weight varies with fuel burn and payload changes.
In flight a powered aircraft can be considered as being acted on by four forces: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. [1] Thrust is the force generated by the engine (whether that engine be a jet engine, a propeller, or -- in exotic cases such as the X-15-- a rocket) and acts in a forward direction for the purpose of overcoming drag. [2]
In level flight, lift equals weight W and thrust equals drag, so P R curve for the light aircraft with the drag curve above and weighing 2000 kg, with a wing area of 15 m² and a propeller efficiency of 0.8.
Most importantly, the maximum lift-to-drag ratio is independent of the weight of the aircraft, the area of the wing, or the wing loading. It can be shown that two main drivers of maximum lift-to-drag ratio for a fixed wing aircraft are wingspan and total wetted area. One method for estimating the zero-lift drag coefficient of an aircraft is the ...
Lift is defined as the component of the aerodynamic force that is perpendicular to the flow direction, and drag is the component that is parallel to the flow direction.. A fluid flowing around the surface of a solid object applies a force on it.
In many aerodynamics problems, the forces of interest are the fundamental forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust, and weight. Of these, lift and drag are aerodynamic forces, i.e. forces due to air flow over a solid body. Calculation of these quantities is often founded upon the assumption that the flow field behaves as a continuum.
Lift-induced drag, induced drag, vortex drag, or sometimes drag due to lift, in aerodynamics, is an aerodynamic drag force that occurs whenever a moving object redirects the airflow coming at it. This drag force occurs in airplanes due to wings or a lifting body redirecting air to cause lift and also in cars with airfoil wings that redirect air ...