We all love to ride a plane. Since childhood, whenever the plane used to go in the sky, our eyes followed him and left the plane far away. Then used to find the shape in the design made of its smoke. At that time, it would probably never have come to our mind that how such a heavy aircraft flies without any support carrying hundreds of people. But growing up, this thing must have come in everyone’s mind. If you do not know the answer, then let us know in this post today.
To understand this thing, we will use the knowledge of Physics, if you have read this thing in Intermediate then you will understand easily. Then let’s understand it in easy language
While flying any airplane, follow these four rules of physics –
1. Thrust
2. Drag
3. Weight
4. Lift
Thrust comes first. Thrust is the force that helps the airplane to move forward. For this, one engine is installed on both the wings of the plane. The job of this engine is to generate thrust. This engine compresses (increasing air pressure) by pulling the air coming in front and leaving it behind. It happened just like if we leave the balloon filled with air, then it starts running upwards. Thrust is created by releasing compressed air.
Let’s explore how to work Engine of Airplane-
The engine on the wing consists of 5 important parts
1.Fan:
If you look at the engine from the front, a fan will appear first. This fan is made of titanium and is very powerful. Millions of kg of air can be drawn from this fan and sent to the engine.
Actually, the wind goes through two paths. Either it can go straight into the engine or it can leave next to it. We call the air passing through the engine bypass. This also generates thrust and it also helps bypass air to keep the engine cool.
2. Compressor:
The compressor’s job is to pressurize the air and increase its density. When the compressor is running, its blades become smaller and compress the air.
3. Combustor:
Through the compressor, the air goes to the combustor, where it is mixed with oil and burnt. It might sound simple, but the process is very complicated.
4.Turbine:
When hot air now passes through the turbine, the speed of the turbine becomes faster. Fan and compressor are also connected to this turbine, which starts pulling air more rapidly.
5. Mixer/Nozzle:
In this last step the compressed air is rapidly expelled.
Here comes the point of understanding. As the air exits the nozzle, Newton’s third law is applied.
Every Action has its Equal and Opposite Reaction
Due to the air coming out of the nozzle, the plane gets pushed forward and this force is called thrust.
After this comes drag or friction force. This can be understood with an example.
When you are moving at high speed in the car and take your hand out the window, a force is felt on the hand. This force applied by the wind starts pushing your hand back. But because the thrust of the car is high and the arm is also strong, so the hand moves along with the car. Although it depends on the speed of the car. Suppose the speed of the car is 2000 km/h. In such a situation, the force of friction will be so much that either your hand will break or you will get burnt.
According to this law, when an asteroid comes in the orbit of the earth, it catches fire, because due to its high speed, the force of friction is also high.
To reduce this force in the airplane, it is made aero dynamics. For this, after the plane takes off, its tires are hidden, so that the drag force is less and the thrust is more.
Now let’s talk about Weight and Lift. Know where these two forces come from.
We know that everything on the earth has its own weight, which is felt due to the gravitational force. The work of the force of gravity is to pull any force downwards. The same happens with flying planes. Gravitational force pulls him down. But the wings of the plane are made in such a way that lift force or lift force can be applied on them.
Actually, the wings of the plane are made to be slanted in such a way that when the thrust pushes the plane forward, the air above the wing passes rapidly and the air under the wing is released slowly. When the air above is released rapidly, its pressure is less than the pressure of the air below. This is where the lift force comes to the fore, which pushes the plane upwards. Because the lift force of the plane exceeds the weight, so the plane can fly in the air. Once in the air, all the forces become equal.
Also note this thing:-
When the lift and thrust force is high, the plane moves upwards.
When all the forces are equal, the plane flies in a straight line.
When the force of gravity and the force of friction are more, then the plane starts coming down. For the plane to land, its speed has to be reduced, due to which the thrust is reduced. For this the engine speed is reduced.