What’s the absolute minimum speed a plane has to go for it to stay in the air?
In: Physics
Well, you see, Bobbie, a plane is always feeling a downward acceleration due to gravity. And the plane needs to be generating enough lift to not fall.
A lot of planes do this by having the wind push up on their wings more than it pushes down. If there’s a strong wind pushing against them, they go up! This is how a kite works.
You know how when you put your face out the window, you feel a lot of wind? Most planes move fast enough that they have enough wind hitting their wings to stay aloft. If they didn’t move fast enough, they’d fall. That’s why pilots have a lot of training and that’s why we should be quiet on the plane to not distract them.
How fast does the plane have to go to not fall out of the sky? Well that depends on the plane and the amount of wind it is flying into. It’s probably called “minimum airspeed” and I’d guess that each airplane has a different minimum speed.
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