To a non-pilot’s eye, on cold days and hot days, an airplane taking off, flying overhead, or landing looks pretty much the same. Sure, if it’s icy or raining very hard, there is a chance that the airplane could slip or hydroplane, but other than that, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. …
Giant airplanes like airliners and military transport aircraft use sophisticated, onboard methods to fly from Point A to Point B. Today, they usually use GPS (Global Positioning System) and/or a combination of other methods using lasers, gyroscopes, and other sophisticated stuff. Interestingly, a few years ago, the military deliberately downgraded the GPS signals the USA’s …
If an airplane can zoom along at supersonic speeds and provide Wifi on demand, why are passengers still grabbing for barf bags and gripping armrests when it comes to turbulence? Why can’t pilots just stay away from it? The short answer: They can’t. Turbulence is basically weather, and therefore about as predictable. What is …
An understanding of flight is rooted in a strong grasp of how an airplane gets in the air—and stays there. Both a passenger jet and a tiny paper airplane are governed by the same forces. Understanding airplane aerodynamics is key to a successful partnership with the atmosphere: They are the foundation for study for student …
Have you ever flown CLT to ORD to COS? If you read that as “Charlotte to Chicago to Colorado Springs,” you’re clued into the language of airport codes. The world’s most famous airports are familiar to us via media–who hasn’t seen the hero of a romantic comedy jump in a cab and yell “JFK, and …