3-2
Figure 3-1. Vector components of lift, drag, and weight (gravity).
a
Lift
Thrust
Vertical
Weight
Flightpath
a
a
Horizontal
Drag
Aircraft angle
Forces of Flight
There are four forces that act upon an aircraft during straight-
and-level ight. They are lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. Lift
counters gravity, and drag counters thrust. When all four
forces are in balance, straight-and-level ight is sustained.
Engine-powered gliders obtain thrust from the engine. Once
in ight and the engine has been shut off, or the glider has
been launched, towed, or winched, the need to obtain thrust
is still there. The glider does this by converting the potential
energy that it has accumulated into kinetic energy as it
glides downward, trading height for distance. In essence, the
gravity vector becomes the horizontal forward thrust vector
component. We measure the force of gravity as the weight in
pounds or kilograms. This explains why the faster the glider
ies, the faster it also descends.
Figure 3-1 shows a basic vector diagram for an unpowered
glider with all forces in equilibrium. The lift vector is
effectively split into two components: one part is opposing
the weight force (gravity in straight-and-level ight), and
the other component of the lift vector opposes drag by
supplying thrust by the conversion of potential energy of
the elevated weight of the glider into kinetic energy. This
conversion continues until the airframe comes to rest on the
surface. A glider is always descending in the air. This allows
development of thrust by the energy conversion process.
The objective of a glider pilot is to remain in air rising faster
than the glider must descend to maintain ying speed. The
same is true for a powered aircraft with its engine turned
off. These forces are explained in greater detail in the Pilot’s
Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25)
and by examining Newton’s laws of motion.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion
According to Newton’s Third Law of Motion, for every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, the
air that is deected downward also produces an upward
(lifting) reaction. The wing’s construction is designed to
take advantage of certain physical laws that generate two
actions from the air mass. One is a positive pressure lifting
action from the air mass below the wing, and the other is a
negative pressure lifting action from the lowered pressure
above the wing.
As the airstream strikes the relatively at lower surface of the
wing when inclined at a small angle to its direction of motion,
the air is forced to rebound downward, causing an upward
reaction in positive lift. At the same time, airstream striking
the upper curve section of the leading edge of the wing is
deected upward, over the top of the wing. The increase in
airspeed on the top of the wing produces a sharp drop in
pressure. Associated with the lowered pressure is downwash,
a downward backward ow. In other words, a wing shaped to
cause an action on the air, and forcing it downward, provides
an equal reaction from the air, forcing the wing upward. If
a wing is constructed in such form that it causes a lift force
greater than the weight of the glider, the glider ies.
If all the required lift were obtained from the deection of air
by the lower surface of the wing, a glider would need only
a at wing like a kite. This, of course, is not the case at all.
The balance of the lift needed to support the glider comes
from the ow of air above the wing. Herein lies the key to
ight. Lift is the result of the airow above and over the wing
lowering the air pressure above the wing, which pull the wing
upwards and the downwash from below the wing pushing
the wing upward. This fact must be thoroughly understood
to continue in the study of ight.
Lift
Lift opposes the downward force of weight (gravity) and is
produced by the dynamic effects of the surrounding airstream
acting on the wing. Lift acts perpendicular to the ightpath
through the wing’s center of lift. There is a mathematical
relationship between lift, angle of attack (AOA), airspeed,
altitude, and the size of the wing. In the lift equation, these
factors correspond to the coefcient of lift, velocity, air
density, and wing surface area. These relationships are
expressed in Figure 3-2. For a complete explanation of
the lift formula and terms refer to the Pilots Handbook of
Aeronautical Knowledge.
This shows that for lift to increase, one or more of the
factors on the other side of the equation must increase. Lift
is proportional to the square of the velocity, or airspeed;
therefore, doubling airspeed quadruples the amount of lift if
everything else remains the same. Likewise, if other factors
remain the same while the coefcient or lift increases, lift
also increases. The coefcient of lift goes up as the AOA is
increased. As air density increases, lift increases. However,