Why can headwind assist planes when taking off and landing? Why does tailwind not help with takeoff?
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Airplanes generate lift by the passage of air from the front of a plane across the shaped wings to the back of a plane, which causes lower air pressure above the wing, generating lift.
A headwind pushes air across them faster, decreasing pressure above the wing further and making lift easier. A tailwind does the opposite, which means you need more speed to generate that lift. That’s a problem when taking off, because you need to go faster to generate the lift to get off the ground, but it’s also a problem when landing because it means your approach needs to be faster to land properly. Since runways are typically of finite length and you need to take off/stop before you reach the end of said finite length, headwinds are better.
Crosswinds are the really shitty ones though.
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