Airfoil Airplanes Lift 
Pilot Institute
JUNE 4, 2025
Have you ever seen an airplane with no tail and no vertical fin, but with just a sleek wing? A tailless aircraft is a fixed-wing airplane without a horizontal stabilizing surface. A tailless airplane is one where everything needed to fly, like lift, control, and stability, is built into the main wing.
Flight Training Central
MARCH 3, 2025
Depending on design, airfoils used in general aviation, stall at angles of attack between 16 to 18 degrees. A wing will always stall at the same angle of attack; however, weight, and bank angle, power setting and load factor may change the speed or the pitch attitude at which the airplane stalls.
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Pilot Institute
MARCH 28, 2025
When air flows over the aircraft wing, the shape of the airfoil creates low pressure above the wing and relatively higher pressure below the wing. This is called lift. Wingtip vortices are a byproduct of lift. Once the wing stops producing lift, the vortices dissipate instantly. How Are Wingtip Vortices Formed?
Pilot Institute
FEBRUARY 9, 2025
Airplane wings vary in shape and size, but all have standard features like the chord line. Wing Control: Flaps, slats, and ailerons change the chord line, impacting lift and control. In general, the chord line is used as an easy-to-understand reference when referring to the properties of a wing or airfoil. Heres a quick recap.
Pilot Institute
MARCH 13, 2025
Many explanations on websites, videos, and even some textbooks oversimplify or misrepresent the true mechanics of lift. In reality, lift generation involves both Bernoullis principle and Newtons third law working together. Read on to understand Bernoullis principle and how it relates to lift the right way.
Flight Training Central
MAY 7, 2024
As much as it seems sometimes that airplanes fly by magic, it’s important for every pilot to understand at least the basic fundamentals of aerodynamics. The term 'angle of attack' is defined as the angle between the airplane's longitudinal axis and that of the air striking the airfoil. What force makes an airplane turn?
Pilot Institute
APRIL 22, 2025
You can lift most limitations through the completion of a prescribed training course with an FAA-certified flight instructor. A great option for that is taking an interactive ground school, such as the private airplane pilot course on Pilotinstitute.com. For instance, the airplane category includes four classes: Single-engine land.
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