How planes fly: what really keeps them in the air
Takeoff speed: why a plane must race down the runway to fly
An airliner can't lift off after a few metres. It needs a long runway and a lot of speed first. What changes as a plane goes faster, until it suddenly leaves the ground?
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1
Full power. The plane starts to roll. At first it is slow, and the wings make almost no lift. All the weight still sits on the wheels.
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2
Then the lift grows much faster than the speed. At twice the speed, a wing meets twice as much air each second. It also throws each bit of air down twice as fast. So twice the speed gives four times the lift.
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