Andrew Solway - Secrets of Flight

ANDREW SOLWAY

E-book published in 2012 by Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., in association with Arcturus Publishing Limited, 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151-153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA. Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-61535-630-0 (e-book)

This edition first published in 2011 in the United States of America by MARSHALL CAVENDISH BENCHMARK An imprint of Marshall Cavendish Corporation

Copyright 2010 Arcturus Publishing Limited

This publication represents the opinions and views of the author based on Andrew Solways personal experience, knowledge, and research. The information in this book serves as a general guide only. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability rising directly and indirectly from the use and application of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Planned and produced by Discovery Books Ltd., 2 College Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 1AN www.discoverybooks.net

Managing editor: Paul Humphrey

Editor: Clare Hibbert

Designer: sprout.uk.com Limited

Illustrator: Stefan Chabluk

Picture researcher: Tom Humphrey

Photo acknowledgments: Corbis: p 19 (Andy Rouse); Creatas: p 5; Getty Images: pp 4 (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP), 7 (Tom Brakefield/Photodisc), 14 (Time Life Pictures/Mansell), 18 (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP); Library of Congress: p 15; NASA: cover and pp 1 Blackbird plane (Dryden Flight Research Center), 29; Shutterstock Images: cover balloon (Vladimir Eremin), cover falcon (EcoPrint), pp 8 (Lobke Peers), 9 (Sylvana Rega), 21 (Ivan Cholakov Gostock-dot-net), 23 (Charles F. McCarthy); Wikimedia: pp 11 (Raike), 12 (DarlArthurS), 24 (NASA), 25 (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III), 26 (NASA), 28 (U.S. Air Force Photo/Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt).

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Solway, Andrew.

Secrets of flight/Andrew Solway.

p. cm. -- (Science secrets)

Includes index.

1. Aeronautics--Juvenile literature. 2. Flight--Juvenile literature. I.

Title.

TL547.S695 2011

629.13--dc22

2009050539

1 3 6 5 4 2

Imagine being an aircraft pilot. You could pilot an airplane, or the latest stealth fighter. Or perhaps you could fly a microlight. These tiny aircraft have no cockpit, and you fly in the open air. Best of all would be to have your very own wings!

Swiss inventor Yves Rossys jet-powered wings are the closest any human has come to flying like a bird.

In this book you will learn about the science secrets behind flight. What were the first creatures to fly, even before birds? How can a plane fly upside down? What is the fastest plane? What about the slowest? And what will flight be like in the future?

This book answers these and lots of other questions. You can also do some flight investigations of your own. But sadly you wont get to fly like a bird.

SUPPORT FROM THE AIR

We can barely feel the air, so how can it hold up a plane? This experiment shows how air can support weight.

You will need:

a small, plastic action figure

tissue paper

scissors

cotton thread

tape

1. Stand on a chair and drop the toy. Does it fall quickly or slowly?

2. Cut two circles of tissue, 6 inches (15 cm) and 12 in. (30 cm) across. Fold each into quarters, snip off the point, then unfold again. Stick four short lengths of cotton to each circle, one at each crease.

3. Tape the small parachute to your toy. Drop the figure again. Does it fall faster or more slowly?

4. Now try the bigger parachute. How fast does it fall this time?

One advantage of flight is that it allows animals to travel farther and faster. Canada geese migrate thousands of miles each year.

Like other land animals, humans cant really get off the ground. We can jump into the air, but we quickly get pulled down again. There is a force that is always pulling us toward the Earth. This force is gravity. Birds, bats, and insects are pulled down by gravity too, but they have found ways to counteract this pull.

The main forces on an aircraft. As well as gravity and lift, there is thrust (provided by the engines) and drag (air resistance).

Gravity is a force that attracts all objects toward each other. The heavier something is (the more mass it has), the stronger its gravitational pull. On the Earths surface, the strongest gravitational pull is from the Earth itself. Its gravity pulls everything toward it.