2. Introduction to Flight
Part 1 of 4
This course is designed to help students learn and
understand the forces that enable an airplane to fly.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (2010), the four forces that affect how
an airplane flies are; lift, drag, thrust, and weight.
Part 1 introduces the students to the first force; lift.

3. Course Objectives
•Given several examples of both effective and non-effective
paper airplane models, the students will be able to accurately
why each example is or is not an effective model for flight with
95% accuracy.
•Given a standard paper airplane, the students will be able to
explain the forces of lift, drag, thrust, and weight and accurately
explain how those forces affect an airplanes flight with 95%
accuracy.
•Given a standard sheet of 8” X 11” paper, the students will be
able to fold an effective paper airplane that can withstand flight
for a minimum of ten seconds from the second story balcony of
the Avionics Building.

4. Lift

5. Lift
•Lift is the force that
directly counters the
weight of an airplane and
holds the airplane in the
air.
•Most of an airplane’s lift is
generated by the wings.
•Lift is produced by the
motion of the airplane
through the air.

6. Lift
•Lift occurs when a moving flow of gas is turned by a solid object.
•The flow is turned in one direction, and the lift is generated in
the opposite direction.
•Because air is a gas and the molecules are free to move about.
•For an airplane’s wing, both the upper and lower surfaces
contribute to the flow turning.

7. Lift
•You can control lift by changing the
angle of the airplane's wing relative to
the wind or by increasing or
decreasing airspeed.
•You can also change the shape of the
wing by lowering the flaps which
extend the area of the wing.
•Anytime you do something to change
lift, drag is affected. If you increase lift,
drag increases. Drag is a by-product of
lift.

8. Resources
Microsoft Flight Simulator Handbook. (1995). Basic aerodynamics. Retrieved
from
http://www.flightsimbooks.com/flightsimhandbook/CHAPTER_02_16_Basic_
Aerodynamics.php
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2010). Welcome to the
Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics. Retrieved from
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bga.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Quest. (2011). Forces on an
aircraft. Retrieved from http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/teachers/foa.html
Airplane image provided by: morgueFile Free License
http://www.morguefle.com