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Aerodynamics: why the airplane flies

Why an airplane flies, what makes it stall, and the structural limits that frame everything you do with the controls.

  1. 1The four forcesLift, weight, thrust, and drag: how they balance, and why "thrust equals drag, lift equals weight" is only half the story.14 min
  2. 2How wings make liftNewton and Bernoulli describe the same airflow from two directions -- and neither one alone is the full story.12 min
  3. 3Angle of attack and the stallThe wing always stalls at the same critical angle of attack -- everything else is a consequence of that one fact.16 min
  4. 4The three axes of rotationRoll, pitch, and yaw, the control surface behind each one, and the four forces that all pull the nose left on takeoff.11 min
  5. 5Stability and controlWhy a trimmed airplane tends to fly itself back to level -- and why the CG position sets the limits of that tendency.13 min
  6. 6Load factor and maneuvering speedThe V-g diagram, VA, and the structural limits a pilot can exceed with the control wheel alone.18 min
  7. 7Ground effect and wingtip vorticesWhy the airplane floats near the runway, why it can feel reluctant to climb just after liftoff, and where the vortices go.11 min