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WHAT MAKES AN AIRPLANE FLY?

    It is interesting to realize what actually makes an airplane stay in the air. I will try to explain this without getting so technical everyone gets lost in the telling, Put simply, it is called the venturi effect. As the plane is moved forward, or the blades on a helicopter is moved in a circular motion, air is moved over the wings (or blades) and when it gets to a given velocity due to the curvature of the wing, a vacuum (not a true vacuum but a lower air pressure) is formed in a very small area on the top side of the wing in the back of the wing where it is curved. The air under the wing tries to fill the vacuum by pushing up on the bottom of the wing. This effect of the air trying to fill an empty space creates lift. If the plane slows to the point that it loses its vacuum, it then falls like a rock unless it is light enough and designed to have a gliding effect. Controlling the amount of the vacuum is what allows an aircraft to descend at a conrtolled rate using flaps on the back side of the wing. The heavier the aircraft, the more vacuum is needed to create enough lift to allow the craft to fly. This would probably make a science teacher tremble because of not going into other variables but this is not intended to be a dissertation on flight. It is meant to be a simple trivia article explaining in the simplest form what allows a plane to stay in the air.