I think I understand how airplane wings create lift when taking off, but I can’t wrap my head around how they stay in the air once they reach cruising altitude.
My understanding of how wings work during takeoff is: by changing the wing’s angle of attack, air molecules under the wing are deflected down, in turn creating lift on the wing. And air molecules that go over the wing are not met with that resistance from the wing, so they move faster than the molecules underneath, creating a pressure difference which also helps generate lift.
But when the airplane reaches cruising altitude, the wings seem pretty much horizontal, so it seems the angle of attack is not nearly as large as it was during takeoff. So at that point how do the wings generate enough lift to stay in the air?
Thank you
Edit: I’m studying mechanical engineering and have taken a fluid mechanics class so I have a little bit of background knowledge, but am still having a hard time understanding this
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The thrust and speed play a big part, on take off most jetliners take off with less speed than at cruise altitude. 130 knots vs nearly .7 or .8 mach at 30-40k feet. Flaps help achieve more lift at lower speeds, after reaching certain speeds flaps are raised because there’s enough speed & thrust to avoid stalling. If you simply try to look at this without the speed and thrust components you will be missing vital info related to what you wish to understand.
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