What is Lift in Aviation?
In order for a heavier-than-air, fixed-wing aircraft to fly, it relies on the principle of lift. Lift refers to the force that works to oppose the weight of an aircraft while in flight, holding it up in the air. Lift can be produced by all parts of a standard commercial airliner, though a majority is generated by its wings. Lift is directly tied to the movement of an aircraft as it traverses the atmosphere, serving as a mechanical aerodynamic force. As a result, lift exhibits both a magnitude and a magnitude direction, such characteristics being affected by various factors. In this blog, we will provide an overview of lift in regard to aircraft, allowing you to better understand the aerodynamics of powered flight.
While scientists have understood lift as a concept for many decades, there are often arguments on how lift is truly generated. As a result, many theories or explanations are misleading or incorrect, even those that are quite popular. For the most widely accepted theory, lift is the result of a moving flow of gas that is turned by a solid object. As the flow is turned one way, lift will begin to produce in the opposite direction in accordance with Newton's Third Law of action and reaction. As a solid object such as an aircraft moves through the atmosphere, it will deflect the flow of air due to the fact that all gas molecules are free-flowing. With the aircraft wings in particular, deflection occurs on both the upper and lower surfaces to turn flow. Generally, many popular theories that fall flat on their explanation fail to account for the role that the upper surface of the wing plays in affecting flow.
Unlike other forms of flow manipulation that involve objects affecting another object without physical contact, lift is a mechanical force. Because of this, lift differs from gravitational fields and electromagnetic fields. Instead of relying on the interaction between a solid object moving through a liquid or gas, lift relies on the presence of fluids, and without fluids, an aircraft would remain on the ground. Many also incorrectly attribute lift to what keeps spaceships in orbit. Rather than using lift to remain in space due to it nearly being a vacuum, spaceships rely on orbital mechanics that center around speed and other various factors.
Nevertheless, speed and motion are very important factors in the generation of lift. Lift is directly affected by the difference in velocity between the moving fluid and object, and there must be ample motion for lift to be upheld. It is also important to understand that lift can be generated regardless of whether an object is traversing a static fluid, or a fluid moves across a static solid object. As lift acts perpendicular to motion, drag will act in the opposite direction.
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