When a light aircraft points directly upwards during a loop-the-loop (which takes forever), what keeps it from falling out of the sky?
In: Physics
Mostly just the momentum. Airplanes are usually flying very fast so when they turn and point upwards it will take some time to slow down. Especially when their engines are still running at full power. On the other hand since they are using momentum to stay in the air they do not need to have enough speed to get lift from the wings. So they can allow the airspeed to get pretty low towards the top of the loop. Of course at that point they do not have enough speed to generate lift to stay in the air so they will end up going downwards if they want it or not. But this also makes them pick up speed again as they head downwards.
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