Why doesn't gravity pull a plane down?

Answer 1

The reason a plane does not "fall" while flying is the same reason you dont immediately fall when you jump.

When you jump, your legs propel you upward. It is that momentary force that allows you to break free from the gravitational force, just for a moment.

The reason a plane does not fall like you might imagine, is that the force pushing it upward (the engines) is constant. Think of it as *always* jumping. If you were to look at a plane from the side, you will see that it is not flying perfectly horizontal. It is actually flying at an upward angle. It is still affected by gravity, so to keep it from falling it must always be going up.

Without getting into physics and fancy calculations, I hope this answer explains it well enough. >> because the 'aerofoil' shape of the wings creates lift that is stronger than gravity.
This answer is partially correct, but just because you have a certain shape of wing does not mean that you counteract gravity.

Answer 2

Planes are designed to generate lift, which counteracts the force of gravity pulling them down. The wings of a plane are carefully shaped to produce lift when air flows over them at high speeds. As long as the lift generated by the wings is greater than the force of gravity pulling the plane down, the plane can stay in the air.

Answer 3

Exactly the same way you pick up a book or a baby ... by applying an upward force on the object which is greater than the downward force of gravity. Note: This principle does not apply to the process of picking up a cold, a girl, or a passenger. This force is called lift. I won't go into major details about how it works, but it works because of Bernoulli's Principle, which bascially states that moving air has less pressure than still air. An airplane wing forces the air on top of it to move faster than the air below it. The air below it thus has more pressure than the air above the wing. This pressure pushes up on the wing, and creates the lift needed to fly the plane.

Answer 4

It does! If the aircraft has 1,000 kilograms of mass, then there is a force of 2,205 pounds

(9,807 newtons) pulling it down toward the center of the Earth, whether the plane is on

the tarmac, cruising in level flight at 10,000 feet, or still in the factory.

The reason that the plane is not always controlled by that downward force, and is even

able to move upward at times, is that its shape and the equipment inside of it are all

designed in ways that interact with air so as to create upward forces, large enough to

exceed the downward force of gravity.

Very similar to the muscles you have in your legs, which are able to create upward

forces large enough to exceed the downward force of gravity always acting on you,

and enable you to walk up a flight of stairs.

Answer 5

Airplanes have parts like thrusters and wings to boost themselves and counteract the force of gravity to help them stay in the air.

+++ No. The wings add no boost at all. An aeroplane flies because the wings are profiled to produce uplift by the air moving over the wing being at a very slightly lower pressure than that underneath. Consequently the pressure difference produces an upwards force on the wing. The wings do this by being slightly convex on the upper surface so the air passing over it has to travel further, hence faster, than that passing under its flat underside. And as the air's speed increases so its pressure falls.