Vintage Aviation News

APRIL 11, 2025

They flew a total of 313 missions, collecting invaluable data on pitch stability, lift, drag, and buffeting in transonic and supersonic flight. Both aircraft display early examples of swept-wing airfoils. The first Skyrocket, NACA 143, began with a turbojet engine, later modified to an all-rocket configuration.

Drag

Professional Pilot

JULY 7, 2025

However, they underestimated their climb from the lift off point and, with the sluggish rate of climb, the saddle ridge across the departure path suddenly became a dangerous obstacle they might not clear. Every pilot knows that aircraft fly because the forces of lift and thrust balance or exceed the weight and drag countering them.

Density Altitude

Flight Training Central

MARCH 3, 2025

Depending on design, airfoils used in general aviation, stall at angles of attack between 16 to 18 degrees. If the bank increases, the loss of vertical lift component tends to lower the nose. Then, slowly and smoothly bring the nose up to the attitude which will stall the airplane.

Rudder

Pilot Institute

APRIL 12, 2025

Lift is the force that aircraft use to counter gravity. Newton’s Third Law is one of the key laws of physics that explains lift. Lets see what Newtons Third Law is, and why we need it to understand lift. This principle is fundamental in generating lift, thrust, and maneuverability, allowing aircraft to fly.

Torque

Pilot Institute

APRIL 22, 2025

You can lift most limitations through the completion of a prescribed training course with an FAA-certified flight instructor. Rotorcraft: Heavier-than-air aircraft that depends principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by one or more rotors. Have either a student or sport pilot certificate. So, hows it any different?

Pilot

Vintage Aviation News

MAY 2, 2025

Although the B-47A appeared structurally sound upon arrival, flight testing revealed notable shortcomingsparticularly buffeting issues that limited both its top speed and achievable lift. The B-47A represented a significant departure from earlier, more rigid aircraft designs. The B-47A fuselage was 106 feet 11 inches in length.

Gross Weight

Flying Magazine

JULY 26, 2025

The FAA this month quietly published long-awaited guidance for the certification of powered-lift aircraft—the first new category of civil aircraft since helicopters were introduced in the 1940s. For lift during horizontal flight, they use rigid airfoils such as wings. b) regulations for special class aircraft.

Lift

Pilot Institute

JUNE 12, 2025

Key Takeaways Variable-sweep wings adjust in flight to balance lift and speed. Straight Wings and Swept Wings At low speeds, like when you’re taking off or landing, you can extend the wings straight out to produce more lift. This is because straight wings have a higher aspect ratio, which also increases the coefficient of lift.

Weight-Shift-Control

Flight Training Central

JUNE 30, 2025

Baffled by Bernoulli A CFI applicant was asked to teach lift during their practical exam. When he created his principle of differential pressure, he had no thoughts about its future application to the development of airfoils and lift production. With some imagination this looks a bit like the top of an airfoil.

Airfoil

Flight Training Central

MAY 7, 2024

The term 'angle of attack' is defined as the angle between the airplane's longitudinal axis and that of the air striking the airfoil. Air traveling faster over the curved upper surface of an airfoil causes lower pressure on the top surface. The horizontal component of lift. The vertical component of lift.

Longitudinal Axis

Simple Flying

JUNE 14, 2025

Hinged panels at the wing’s trailing and leading edges transform a sleek airfoil into a low-speed lift sail. Increasing camber, flaps propel an airliner to lift off at lower speeds, trading a little drag for a lot of lift. One of the most influential cockpit levers on a jet’s take-off is the flap handle.

Camber

Flying Magazine

MAY 1, 2024

Otto Lilienthal did it by shifting his weight, but for the much larger Wright Flyer the solution was to make one wing produce more lift than the other by twisting them in opposite directions. In other words, the lift change that results from deflecting the aileron is not confined to the aileron itself.

Aileron

Flying Magazine

MAY 30, 2025

That combination of requirements was incompatible with very thin wings, and in the early days of aviation it was widelythough not universallybelieved that thin birdlike airfoils were best. When engines were weak and it was hard to get into the air at all, multiple wings were an obvious way to add lift without making the airplane much bigger.

Drag

Vintage Aviation News

OCTOBER 7, 2024

During these years, he concluded that the inner surface of the venturi tube needed an airfoil shape to achieve the greatest efficiency. The duct, as predicted by Stipa, had a profile similar to that of the airfoil, with a fairly small rudder and elevators mounted on the trailing edge of the duct. The Stipa-Caproni in flight.

Airfoil

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 9, 2025

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. Basically, the mean camber line is meant to indicate the midpoint between the top and bottom surfaces of the airfoil.

Center of Gravity

Vintage Aviation News

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024

However, by the mid 1950s, the desire to increase the range and speed of large airplanes led to swept-back wings of high aspect ratio, thin airfoils, and fuselages with high fineness ratios (i.e. long and thin).

Airfoil

Pilot's Life Blog

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

Aerodynamic Differences Fixed-Wing Aircraft (Airplanes) Airplanes , or fixed-wing aircraft, generate lift through their stationary wings as they move forward. The wings are designed with an airfoil shape, curved on the top and flatter on the bottom, creating a pressure difference when air flows over them.

Torque

Learn to Fly

JULY 11, 2024

An angle of attack (AOA) indicator can determine the aerodynamic health of the airfoil (wing). This flight instrument measures the angle between an aircraft’s wing and the relative wind, providing a visual representation of how much lift the wings are generating at a given airspeed or angle of bank.

Airfoil

Vintage Aviation News

OCTOBER 18, 2024

Storo lifted the British fighter into the air for the first time on June 28, 2022, from Tillamook Municipal Airport near his home. At that point, you’re simply looking down the runway, and then it lifts off. Storo’s replica wears the colors of Royal Air Force (RAF) No. 19 Squadron. “The first flight was kind of interesting.

Crosswind

Fear of Landing

MARCH 22, 2024

Supercritical Airfoil During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA scientist Richard Whitcomb led a team of researchers to develop and test a series of unique geometric shapes of airfoils or wing sections that could be applied to subsonic transports to improve lift and reduce drag.

Wind Shear

Pilot Institute

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

And ice doesn’t just make things slippery, it messes with the airflow over the wings, cuts down on lift, and ramps up drag. Remember that wings, propeller blades, and tail surfaces are airfoil-shaped. Ice build-up on the airframe changes the airflow pattern around these airfoils.

Pitot Tube

Air Facts

JULY 22, 2024

The Four Forces of Flight (Lift, Thrust, Drag & Gravity) obey Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. irplane controls work per the Lever Principle, and a wing’s airfoil shape increases lift via the Bernouilli Principle and Coanda Effect. Like Moses and the Ten Commandments, aviation is limited by 10 laws of physics and chemistry.

Lift

Flying Magazine

MAY 6, 2025

It retained the classic, high-lift Clark Y airfoil, but the span of its four-position semi-Fowler flap span was extended. In 2005, a new wing became standard. That required the creation of a redesigned, shorter span aileron that resulted in a markedly increased roll rate.

Gross Weight

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 3, 2024

The airfoil is a Harry Riblett shape, giving modernized flow separation on the leading edge for a soft stall yet with good lift and drag performance. The takeoff technique is conventional taildragger—add full power, let the tail come up, then lift off when you get above Vmc. Overall, the controls were wonderful.

Airplanes