Usually planes are able to fly when air moves across the wings which generates lift. But how do fighter jets able to maintain lift while performing aerobatic maneuvers?

Question

Usually planes are able to fly when air moves across the wings which generates lift. But how do fighter jets able to maintain lift while performing aerobatic maneuvers?

In: 342

Answer 1

Depends on the maneuver. Sometimes, they still move fast enough to generate lift. Other times… they sail through the air like a rock.

Turns out that if you throw a rock at near Mach 1 it can fly pretty far. When they end the maneuver they gain speed again (either from falling or using the engine) and turn from a rock back into a plane.

You will often hear “energy” mentioned – both speed and altitude are energy in different forms (kinetic and potential) and you can trade them against each other. If you’re fast, you can pull up, and you’ll slow down but gain altitude. If you’re high up, you can go down, and you’ll accelerate. (This can actually be a problem if you need to descend a big plane quicky, e.g. if an airliner loses cabin pressure – you can’t go down without gaining speed, and you can only get rid of so much with flaps, speedbrakes, etc.)

Military planes often also have insanely powerful engines, to the point where they can *accelerate while going straight up*. But by managing energy correctly, that’s not needed for aerobatics. Glider pilots *love* loopings.

Some aerobatics can be flown even with big planes. For example, a good pilot can [fly a barrel roll with a 707](https://simpleflying.com/boeing-707-barrel-roll-seattle/), or you can take a [KC-135](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker), pull it up in a 45 degree angle, and then let it basically freefall like the above mentioned rock for a mile or so (first continuing upwards before falling down), the passengers [might get a bit sick though.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced-gravity_aircraft)