zlacker

>>qqqqqu+(OP)
Flight. How can a plane fly when it's thrust to weight ratio is less than one? It's like, if you can produce 10 pounds of thrust, who would look at that and say "ah ha, we can use this to keep a 100 pound machine miles in the air indefinitely"?

I understand flight from a mathematical point of view. I've actually read a few books on the subject, and I could explain how flight works to someone. However, I'm still fishing for an explanation that "feels" more satisfying though. Per the question, I still want it explained better.

EDIT: There's already a thread about flight. I asked the same question there, but phrased a bit differently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993460

>>Button+p41
The 10 pounds trust is used to overcome the airodynamic friction, when the plane is in high speed. Because the "way" around the wing is longer on one side compared to the other this create a lower pressure on one side, and higher on the other. This pressure both lift and push the plane up. If there was zero friction you would hold the plane up with zero thrust ;)

I build this at school, using the same principle: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivilingeni%C3%B8r#/media/Fil:...

>>punner+O51
The problem with this description is that you don't need a fancy shaped wing to fly, a flat board will work. Aerofoils provide better efficiency but are not required.