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By Max
Aerodynamics is the way that air flows over, under, and around an object. Aerodynamics works hand in hand with the basic parts of flight. The basic parts of flight are Thrust, Lift, Drag, and Weight.
Wings work by creating an airfoil. On a wing, an airfoil is when the air on the bottom of the wing moves faster than the air on the top of the wing. Because the air on top of the wing is moving slower, it creates suction. That is what creates most of the lift.
A plane might not have enough lift to fly perfectly straight. Some planes have to fly at a slight upward pitch in order to keep altitude. I talked to my dad who is in the air force, and he said that the E-8 Joint STARS (J-Stars for short) flew at such a pitch that you could roll toilet paper to the back of the aircraft without interruption. The J-Stars was a pretty extreme example. Most planes, like the F-18 super hornet, fly at much less of a pitch.
Planes that fly over land are not allowed to go faster than the speed of sound right now because the sonic boom they make is very disruptive to people and animals.
Most modern planes also take off and land at an upward pitch. When they take off they push the throttle to full, and point the nose up. That creates lift. When pilots land they pull the throttle back. The airflow over the wings isn’t enough to keep the plane flying straight at such low speeds, so the plane will slowly lose altitude.
NASA develops a lot of experimental planes called "X Planes" to advance the designs and capabilities of aircraft. The X-15 pictured to the left is a plane that NASA developed that was capable of going right to the edge of space. The header image for this page is another plane NASA is developing called the X-59. This NASA plane is capable of flying at super sonic speeds without making a sonic boom. NASA is using the science of sound to reduce the surfaces of the plane that might cause a sonic boom, so when the plane flies overhead it makes more of a sonic thumb that is very quiet. The hope is to produce commercial aircraft that are cleared to fly over land areas because they will not disturb all the people. These planes could make it possible to fly from coast to coast in 2.5 hours instead of the typical 5 hours it takes right now.
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