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Aircrafts and the way they move about

Have you ever sat and asked yourself how do aeroplanes make it to the air? Most of us have tried but didn’t get the
answers or the correct answers.
These machines have wheels and engines just like cars therefore they can move on the ground but now they have
wings in addition (fixed or rotating: next topic). As the aircraft move on the ground before they leave the surface of the
earth they make use of the engine(s) and wheels, however the engine remain in use even after taking off from the
ground this is when the use of the wings come in place.
The wings (Fixed or rotating)

There are mainly two types of aircraft wings these are the normal spread wings (fixed) which do not move significantly
during the course of flight and the overhead propeller of a helicopter (rotor) is also referred to as a rotating wing. This
maybe slightly confusing for now but lets us explain: an aircraft wing is that part of the aircraft used to support or
suspend the aircraft during flight and must therefore be shaped in a certain or specific manner for it to perform this
function. This shape is called aerodynamic shape meaning a shape that can move or allow movement through air and
its changing conditions. Therefore we now can safely say the wings of an aircraft are there to provide aerodynamic
ability to a moving aeroplane. Also wing will differ in shapes and sizes to therefore serve different purposes in flight
since aeroplanes fly in different altitudes and at different speeds.
Aircraft engines

Like in a car an engine of the aeroplane is used to produce thrust (forward) or power for moving. These engines are
producing a forward movement for the whole body of an aircraft (fuselage) including the wings. These engines differ in
the way they produce this forward motion, some of them some of them use a propeller in front of an engines to pull it
forward, the others use propellers at the back of an engine to push it forward and the ones in the bigger aeroplanes
uses a mechanism called jet-propulsion (which you will discuss at a later stage should you choose a carrier in
aviation). Aircraft engines are designed in such a way that they can withstand the atmospheric conditions at higher
altitudes.
Aircraft wheels/Landing gears

Like a motor-car some aeroplanes have wheels which are needed for two main purposes, one being the movements
on the ground and landing on the ground after a flight which is why we refer to these as landing gears. Some
helicopters do not have wheels but they still have landing gears which are made of fixed structure. Imagine if
aeroplanes did not have landing gears they would have to land on the ground with their bodies which would be
harmful and dangerous.
The Fuselage

The fuselage is the actual body of the aircraft. This part provides room for passengers and cargo that the aeroplane
needs to carry and also provide with attachment area for the other components such as the wings, landing gears and
engines. This is made of a thin layer of metal skin light enough to fly but can still carry the load
Balance stability during flight

When an aircraft is in the air it must be stable for the comfort of passengers and to keep the cargo carried unchanged.
This balance is achieved by having a balance in the forces acting on the aeroplane. There will be four forces acting on
an aircraft as it moves through space and those will be THRUST (engine), DRAG (friction), LIFT (wings) and WEIGHT
(gravity/load).
1. The engine(s) is producing the forward force to keep the whole body moving in a forward
direction.
2. Friction wil try to oppose the motion produced by the engine (Newton’s second law of motion), and we refer to this
force as drag as it works to drag the aeroplane backwards. 3. The wings of an aircraft produce lift. This is achieved because the wings are aerodynamically shaped to produce 4. Weight this is the force due to gravity meaning the mass of the aeroplane and its content is accelerated toward the centre if the earth, this force also opposes the lift produced by the aerodynamics of the wings and the fuselage at large

Source: http://atasa.co.za/doc/Aircrafts_and_the_way_they_move_about.pdf