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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]
Forces relevant to flight are [22] 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 is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that system. [ 2 ]
[4] [5] He was a pioneer of aeronautical engineering and is sometimes referred to as "the father of aviation." [3] He identified the four forces which act on a heavier-than-air flying vehicle: weight, lift, drag and thrust. [6] Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries and on the importance of cambered wings, also proposed by Cayley ...
Also, the direction of the force of thrust is generally fixed in the body frame, though some aircraft can vary this direction, for example by thrust vectoring. The wind frame is a convenient frame to express the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an aircraft.
Forces of flight on a powered aircraft in unaccelerated level flight. Understanding the motion of air around an object (often called a flow field) enables the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. In many aerodynamics problems, the forces of interest are the fundamental forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust, and weight. Of ...
Aerodynamics work throughout the 19th century sought to achieve heavier-than-air flight. George Cayley developed the concept of the modern fixed-wing aircraft in 1799, and in doing so identified the four fundamental forces of flight - lift, thrust, drag, and weight. The development of reasonable predictions of the thrust needed to power flight ...
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.