Here is a FAA video that explains how airplanes fly. It is a public domain video, about 19 minutes long. Unfortunately it can't be embedded. Here is the link, on Google videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8053355611781104323&q=how+airplanes+fly DESCRIPTION: "What makes an airplane get off the ground and stay in the air? Easy to understand film combines animation and live sequences to explain basic aerodynamics. Forces of lift, weight, thrust and drag are shown in relation to flight."

This can be a very long and technical answer. Instead, try this experiment: stick your hand outside of your car window while driving at a fair rate of speed. Make your palms flat and parallel to the ground. Now tilt your palm slightly one way and your arm will either rise or go down (depending on which way it's tilted). Now tilt palm the other way and the reverse will happen. This is basically the "angle of attack" for the wing and is an over simplification example on how lift for an airplane wing works.

The airfoil(how the wing is curved) forces the air on top of the wing to travel further, and therefore, faster, which lowers the pressure. This creates a pressure gradient that lifts the plane.

They fly by generating lift (usually from their wings) from the air. They do this by using forward speed to force air downwards with the shape and angle ("angle of attack") of the wings. A plane needs to keep enough airspeed over the wings to create enough lift to balance the weight, or it will stall (the airflow becomes turbulent) and sink. Lift is a gift, thrust is a must. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_%28force%29

As long as they do, I am happy.

I am programming a Flash game that uses these formula for my airplane- A general formula for lift: L = (1/2) d v(squared) s CL L = Lift, which must equal the airplane's weight d = density of the air due to altitude(ignored) v = velocity of the aircraft s = the wing area of an aircraft in square feet(ignored) CL = Coefficient of lift , which is determined by the type of airfoil(ignored) and angle of attack Thin Airfoil Theory (basically a 2d airfoil of infinite width hence no stall) for calculating CL: CL = 2 * pi * angle of attack The angle of attack is the difference in rotation between the airplane and the angle it is moving.

A lot of people eductated during the 60s and 70s still quote the Benulli effect as the primary method in which a wing produces lift. The Benulli effect is the reduction in pressure of an airflow as it travels over the top of a curved aerofoil. I wont go into the details of why the pressure drops, you can read up on it else where, but hasten to add, this pressure drop 'sucks' the curved top of the wing while the greater air pressure underneath pushes up. That how people often explain lift. Unfortunately while the effect certainly exists it is for most wings only a small percentage of the lift and in some cases almost no effect at all. Let me first give 2 examples to make you question the aerofoil benulli combination. 1. If it were true, how does a plane fly up side down with the curved aerofoil inverted? 2. High speed jets have almost flat symetical wing shapes, so where does the benulli effect come in ? The majority of lift is actually due to Newtons second law. This basically states that the velocity of an object will change direction if the forces on it are not in equilibrium. ie basically, 'give something a push & it will move in that direction'. Similarly the air striking the underside of a wing has mass and initia and will push it, as it gets pushed out of the way. In the case of a wing the air is pushed down, the wing is pushed up.ie LIFT. In addition to this the Benulli effect also adds some lift (about 20%). BUT this is actually a by-product of the Coanda effect. This physical phenomenon shows that when a liquid moves at high speed near a curved surface, it adapts itself to that curvature. This also applies to air, but the flow speed must be much higher for effectiveness. You can demonstrate the effect by holding the curved back on a spoon in the water flowing from a tap. It is the Coanda effect which allows air to travel over the top of the wing and also be 'deflected' in much the same direction as the air on the under surface of the wing. At too steep an angle, the Coanda effect eventually fails, the air unsticks from the top surface and pulls away causing huge turbulence and loosing any of the benulli lift and the lift from deflected air from the top surface. (more than half the lift disappears) ie STALL So thats how a wing produces lift. The principle is often referred to as 'Turning Mass'. ie hit a ball with a bat, the ball turns one way, the bat the other...or replace ball with air, and bat with wing. You get the picture. ps NASA, and Cranfield Air Labs are both in aggreement with this so while I know this information causes debate, if you dont like it, argue with them not me. There you have it, longer than I hoped but I hope it helps.

it is an amazing feat of modern engineering the JET ENGINE due to the fact that a average passenger plane weighs many hundreds of tons these relativly small little jet engines produce enough power to push the aircraft fast enough to lift up into the sky the movie 'the aviator' is a very good film i would recommend you to see leo de caprio was not a good choice of actor but the movie is very good anyway

Pilots.