How Do Planes Work​

 

Take off 

On average, and in the United Sates alone, 45,000 flights fly across the United States each day. When you leave the USA and look globally, 2.8 billion people travel by airline each year. That makes 16.4 million airline flights each year. Additionally, planes carry an incredible amount of ‘stuff’, 44,500,000,000 pounds (about 20184844000 kg) of cargo each year. Planes are an essential source of transportation and on average can travel 9,500 miles (about 15288.77 km) without stopping for gas, but do you know how they are flown? Or how the engines work? Keep reading and you will find out! 

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How it All Started 

The first powered plane was built by the Wright brothers in 1903. The Wright brothers are the pioneers of modern-day aviation mechanics, ... even if the things they used are the farthest thing from modern day mechanics. They tested three full sized gliders and then flew the first powered plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds, flew 36 meters and Orville Wright was the one piloting. The materials used for the airframe was wood, the covering of the plane was not made of something hard like modern day metal, it was made of muslin and the engine crank case was made of aluminum. Now let's talk about the core of the plane! 

     

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Engine 

There are many different engines for different planes. Most airlines have a turbofan engine in their planes but, aircraft like jets use a turbojet engine. Turbofan engines have a big fan in the front which sucks some of the air into the engine but, most of the air goes around the outside of the core of the engine. When the air goes outside and around the core, it makes the plane quieter and gives it more thrust when it is going at a low speed. In turbojet engines all the air that goes into the engine passes through a gas generator. The generator is made of a combustion chamber, turbine, and a compressor. In a turbofan engine the portion of air that goes into the engine goes into a combustion chamber while the rest goes through a fan and then released as a “cold jet.” It is called “cold jet” because it is the air that went around the core and was not mixed with the gas generator exhaust. The air that mixed with the exhaust is called “hot jet”. This system is supposed to increase thrust without using too much fuel, it works by increasing the airmass flow while reducing the velocity within the total energy supply. Sure, engines produce the thrust to make planes fly but, do you know what makes the plane lift? 

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Wings 

How the wings of an airplane work are quite a simple concept. The wings are shaped so that the air can go fast over top the wing and decreases the pressure of the air. Basically, the pressure on the top side of the wing is less than the bottom side of the wing. The difference in the pressure makes the wings lift into the air and the angle of the wing creates down-wash, that is the reaction force creating lift. Now you know how wings make the plane lift, but do you know how the wings are controlled? 

  

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Cockpit 

The cockpit is where the pilot controls the plane using the instruments and not the kind that plays music. Some of those instruments are airspeed indicators, altimeter, altitude indicator, heading indicator, turn coordinator and vertical speed indicator. All those things are on a panel in the cockpit and most airliners have a door that separates the cockpit from the cabin. The cockpit controls everything on the plane and how it moves, but do you know what part of the plane makes it turn? 

 

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Ailerons 

Ailerons are small, hinged sections located on the tip of both wings. They create rolling motion of the pane. The pilot controls them by raising one and lowering the other aileron with a control wheel. You can roll the aircraft to the right by lifting the right aileron and dropping the left aileron by turning the wheel right. Rolling left is done moving the ailerons the opposite way. Keep in mind the ailerons aren't the only thing that helps make the plane turn. 

 

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Rudder 

The rudder controls the yaw of the plane. Which means the side-to-side motion of the nose of the aircraft. The pilot presses the left and right peddles on the floor to move the rudders left and right. The ailerons are used with the rudder to turn the plane while flying. So now you know how the plane flies and what parts it uses, but what about take-off and landing? 

 

 

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Elevators 

The elevators are at the back of the plane, on its tail end. Its job is to control the pitch of the plane.  Same as ailerons; a pilot uses a control wheel to make the elevators rise and lower. When the pilot lowers the elevators, the plane's nose goes down which makes the plane go down. Same with raising the elevators, but making the plane go up. They play a big part in landing the plane because they are in control of most of the landing. 

 

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The landing 

Airplanes have come a long way from what they used to be; wood to metal, gasoline engines to turbofan engines. Before reading this, you may have thought the engine, wings, and cockpit were the most important things in a plane; but from reading this you know there is so much more, like how the elevators control whether the plane goes up or down. Or how the parts of the plane, ailerons and the rudder, control the direction of a plane. Next time you travel by plane, you'll know what goes into making a plane fly, see you in the skies!.