Michael “Mike” Rose of Miramonte is an educator with 12 years of classroom experience, including seven at Miramonte High School in Orinda, California, where he taught social science and helped launch a Model United Nations team that rose to national prominence. He previously served as a student teacher and substitute in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, wrote curriculum at Woodland Polytechnic, and taught at Christopher High School. A graduate of California State University in criminal justice with a master’s from St. Mary’s College of California, he is pursuing an MBA and a graduate degree in youth and family ministry. Drawing on his background in program development, cross-curricular collaboration, and clear instruction, Mike presents an accessible overview of how airplanes fly. The goal is a straightforward, student friendly explanation of flight fundamentals rooted in accurate, foundational science.
How Airplanes Fly – Understanding the Principles of Flight
Four invisible forces: lift, weight, thrust, and drag largely explain every aircraft takeoff, climb, and landing. Fundamentally, a force is any push or pull that changes an object’s movement, speed, or direction. In aviation, these forces’ interaction shapes every moment during flight.
Lift is the upward force, opposing weight, that the aircraft’s wings primarily generate. Critically, lift acts perpendicularly to the relative wind or airflow. Notably, air has molecules with mass, allowing it to apply force. A wing’s shape—airfoil—is crucial for creating lift.
Bernoulli’s principle helps explain this force. It states that fast-moving air experiences low pressure, while slow-moving air has high pressure. The airfoil’s curve—camber—causes air to speed up as it flows over the upper surface. Because air moves faster over the top surface than below the airfoil, there is lower pressure above the wing than below it, resulting in the net upward force called lift.
Weight is the gravitational force pulling the aircraft toward the Earth. Newton’s second law of motion—an object’s acceleration depends on the net force applied to it and its mass—gives the formula “W=mg” that aids in calculating weight. W means weight, m means mass, and g is how fast an object accelerates due to Earth’s gravity.
Weight acts through the center of gravity (CG), a pivot point through which all weight forces sum up. CG changes as factors like fuel are consumed. Weight always points straight down toward the Earth’s center, regardless of the aircraft’s attitude or orientation.
Thrust is the forward force the engines generate, propelling the airplane. Propeller-powered planes create thrust using blades that look like spinning wings, accelerating air backward. Jet engines produce thrust by letting out exhaust gases at high speed. Managing thrust is vital across all flight phases, including rapid acceleration during takeoff and precision control during cruise and landing.
Drag is the aerodynamic force that resists forward motion, acting opposite to thrust. Two main drag categories exist: parasitic drag—resistance caused by the aircraft’s shape and surface, including friction from non-lift-generating surfaces like the fuselage and landing gear—and induced drag—a lift generation byproduct that creates wingtip vortices, which are spiraling air currents produced behind a wing during lift generation. Engineers design aircraft with streamlined shapes, smooth surfaces, and winglets to reduce drag. While efficiency demands minimizing drag, it is useful during landing. Devices like spoilers and air brakes get deployed to increase drag when needed for safe descent and control.
Lift and weight are opposing forces, like thrust and drag. For an aircraft to maintain stable, controlled flight, these forces must balance perfectly—equilibrium. Thus, lift must equal weight, and thrust must balance drag. For an aircraft to become airborne, the engines must create enough thrust to overcome drag, and the wings must generate enough lift to overcome weight.
Besides these forces, there are advanced flight control concepts. To begin, flight dynamics require careful management of the angle of attack (AoA). AoA is the angle between the wing’s chord line (an imaginary straight line connecting an airfoil cross-section’s leading and trailing edges) and the relative wind. Increasing the AoA increases lift to a critical point. If a pilot exceeds critical AoA, smooth airflow detaches from the wing’s upper surface, and the wing stalls, resulting in a critical loss of lift. Stalls can happen at any airspeed or altitude.
Additionally, engineers analyze the boundary layer—a thin layer of air closest to the aircraft’s surface with the strongest frictional effects. Airflow within this layer can be laminar (smooth and consistent, generating less drag) or turbulent (chaotic), generating more drag. While maintaining laminar flow reduces drag, turbulence can sometimes be beneficial as it delays a stall by keeping air attached to the wing longer.
Finally, three main axes control an aircraft’s movement: pitch, roll, and yaw. Pitch, controlled by the elevator, is the lateral axis that determines an aircraft’s nose upward or downward movement. Roll, managed by ailerons, is the longitudinal axis useful for tilting left or right. Yaw, adjusted by the rudder, is the vertical axis that adjusts the nose’s direction without rolling the plane.
About Mike Rose of Miramonte
Michael “Mike” Rose is an educator with experience across several California schools, including seven years as a social science teacher at Miramonte High School in Orinda. He launched a Model United Nations program that achieved top 20 national standing, expanded a law program, and promoted cross-curricular collaboration. He previously taught at Woodland Polytechnic and Christopher High School and served in the Mount Diablo Unified School District. He holds a BS in criminal justice and a master’s from St. Mary’s College and is pursuing an MBA and a graduate degree in youth and family ministry.
