Eli5: How can something as heavy as a aeroplane can lift and even more interesting how can it maintain a certain height for very long time above the air?

Question

Also if someone says increase engine power doesn’t that increase planes weight which means you need more engine power and it goes into a infinite loop

In: 0

Answer 1

Planes fly because the force with which they redirect air downwards is more than their weight. The engine of course needs to be powerful enough to overcome drag, or the plane can’t maintain speed. But if you’re fine with slowing down, then you don’t need an engine. You just have a glider.

>Also if someone says increase engine power doesn’t that increase planes weight which means you need more engine power and it goes into a infinite loop

So, two things.

One, that’s if you increase engine power by putting “more engine” on. But even very early on, engine power contributing to lift quickly outstripped their weight contribution compared to the weight of the plane they’re powering. So generally, more engine is more lift.

Now FUEL, that does have this problem. More range = more fuel. More fuel = more weight. More weight = more fuel consumption. More fuel consumption = less range. There’s certainly a balancing act required there, but less so than rockets. Rockets have it really bad.

Two, you can increase power by making the engine BETTER, for the same weight. Then you can choose whether you want more power for the same weight, or sane power for less weight.