Do planes really fly?

The question I have is if planes really and truly fly? I don't mean light little balsa wood planes or such, but like fighter jets. They just have a ton of the thrust, or so it seems. Like if I threw a ball hard enough, it would go all the way across North America, if it was higher than mountains. So isn't the jet kinda just throwing itself at a high speed till it slows itself down and stops? Is their really and truly flight? Also, how can I scientist prove this or test this? Thanks so much.

Update:

Just an additional thought that has come into my mind, in response to the guy who says it's different to be pushed through the air by constant thrust, rather than throwing something yourself...isn't the constant thrust simply like being thrown over and over again. It sounds weird, but my mind is asking if you're not being thrown at an infinite rate over and over again...

Comments

  • The most common way for a fighter jet to fly is using aerodynamic lift: but only at low velocities. The lift is generated from lower air pressure on the top of the wings (as you may know already) and higher air pressure on the bottom.

    As for your ball theory, it doesn't apply to fighter jets since their scale and speed doesn't really match up to the curvature of the earth. They would have to fly at blisteringly fast speeds; -- around 10 times the speed of sound -- to compensate for their low flight altitude. But even then, you must continue to thrust the aircraft forward because air resistance will eventually slow the aircraft down and cause it to plummet. Only satellites would have this 'orbiting' capability.

    I once saw a documentary on a fighter jet that was involved in an air collision whilst on a simulation mission. The plane was badly damaged and was flying on one wing. Normally, the loss of a wing meant that you wouldn't have enough aerodynamics to lift the plane, but as long as you have enough velocity you can keep flying in a way similar to a rocket.

    If you search "fighter one wing" in Youtube you may be able to find the video.

    =======

    In response to your second question, I think you're getting confused over how the flight of a satellite differs from an aircraft. A satellite flies because of Newton's 1st law:

    "A physical body will remain at rest, or continue to move at a constant velocity, unless an outside net force acts upon it."

    Meaning that there is no reason for satelites to stop flying, because there is no air resistance for it to counteract. Secondly, they are able to remain at a set altitude from earth because their tangential velocity allows them to "miss" the target object and contiune falling infinitely.

    See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit

    A plane however, needs to maintain their thrust to continue flying because there is air resistance. Yes, they need constant thrust. Yes, they cannot go any faster than their jet engines allow them to. Once they reach a specific velocity, they will stop accelerating.

    It is different from being "thrown" because on earth, thrown objects have to overcome air resistance and will eventually stop, no matter how hard you throw them (unless your throw them aboard a spacecraft).

  • The difference between a ball and the jet is that while the ball would lose speed and drop to the ground due to friction and gravity the jet has thrusters at the back that produce forward motion then the wings take over by producing lift. A ball is really more like a satellite then because eventually it would just be put into orbit. Basically the difference is that the jet can actually throw itself while the ball cannot once its been released. But thats where the flight comes from because the lift produced from it throwing itself can keep it up in the air.

  • jet planes especially are aerodynamically designed for flight, first of all they have wings! which is really very essential for something to fly. the difference between a tennis ball and a plane is that a tennis ball cant sustain the same speed at which it is thrown, it has no power over the distance it travels and it must eventually come down due to physics. (newtons laws of motion)

    planes i guess have been designed to mimic birds, they are designed to stay in the air. however without the thrust and motors a plane could not get off the ground, such as a bird could not get into the air without muscle strength etc.. therefore there is such thing as flight.

    hope that helps :]

  • To fly is defined by using wings to move through the air. In the case of a jet fighter, it's wings do create lift but since they are smaller there must be more air flowing over them to create the lift. This means that it needs to go faster. Also, a baseball that got thrown hard enough and high enough wouldn't be the same as an aircraft because it does not create any lift.

  • No matter how hard you throw a baseball, it will travel toward earth at a constant rate. This is because there is no lift to keep it up. A fighter jet could not gain altitude without the use of lift. If it used some brute force method of travel, it would have to be carried into the air by another craft, and like the baseball, would be pulled to earth at a constant rate.

  • Everything that isnt on the earth ground s flying. When you throw the ball its flying too. Why getting confused cause that? And by the way some of those jets are able to fly in one position. Thats why they dont need a long landing field. So they just land like a helicopter.

  • It flies in the sense that it provides its own force to keep it in the air.

    If you claim that a bird flies, then a plane flies. This is because each of them provides its own thrust and upward forces, and if they stopped providing that thrust they would glide and eventually crash into earth.

    Truly, this question is why an engineer is better than a scientist.

  • Well most people commonly percept the view of a plane "flying". It is more of a gliding motion, like a paper plane, when thrown it stays up, but has no vertical lift on itself, so it doesnt fly. It used trust like when trowing a paper one but launching, but when in the air only because of turbulance (like a fan) does a plane go up suddenly.

    The answer, in short, is technically no.

  • Actually... Maybe what they REALLY do- is "float..." on Our Ocean of Air... It's like when we go Swimming... -If we DON'T move in the Water, we tend to sink downward... But once we start propelling Ourselves FORWARD- we tend to remain on the waters Surface... When a Plane get enough forward momentum- the rush of air beneath the wings tends to LIFT the Plane off the Ground- & thus it's "floating on Air..." THAT doesn't sound too much like "Rocket Science" -does it?! :)

  • Àlso see resolved questions. Simply put, the wing can generate lift in the up direction even when it is flying upside down. This is done by angle of attack. That's the angle of the wing relative to the airflow. The wing is cambered to produce lift more efficiently in the normal straight and level flight but it can still produce lift upside down.

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