Airplane flight is one of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century. The invention of the airplane allows people to travel from one side of the planet to the other in less ...

Picture yourself seated by your window seat, as your plane takes off, then you ascend thousands of feet about sea level, thinking about life in the oceans as you fly. As the clouds part, it reveals a ...

Over the past few decades, transportation technology has advanced tenfold, but why aren’t airplanes going any faster? Turns out, there’s a few very good reasons as to why you don’t want your ...

Here's what that means for turbulence. Every flier waits to hear those magic words after takeoff: “We have reached cruising altitude; you’re now free to move about the cabin.” But what is cruising ...

Imagine this: Stick your hand out of the window of a car that travels at around 60 mph, and you will notice how lift is being produced as you twist your hand up and down. As the car accelerates, you ...

Aerodynamics explains how airplanes fly through the interplay of four fundamental forces: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Lift opposes gravity, thrust propels forward, and drag resists motion. Pilots ...

Professor and department head for the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University Bill Crossley answers questions about airplanes and aerospace engineering from Twitter. How do ...

How do helicopters fly? They face the same forces that planes do, but they have a special feature to help them hover and go where no plane can. Find out more. Science Trek is available to stream on ...