In winter weather, delays pile up at airports when planes need de-icing. Our current process involves spraying thousands of gallons of chemicals on planes, but these chemicals are easily removed Keep reading
Tag: airplanes
Planes Lift
Need a little refresher on how airplanes fly? The middle school students of The Nueva School have you covered with their latest science rap parody. They take a look at Keep reading
Contrails From 4 Engines
The wingtip vortices of aircraft provide a veritable cornucopia of gorgeous imagery. There’s something inherently fascinating about these vortices that stretch behind moving aircraft. But four-engine aircraft add an extra Keep reading
Ventilation and Respiratory Disease
In 1977, one passenger with the flu infected 38 people onboard a flight with malfunctioning ventilation. In this video, Dianna digs into the physics of respiratory disease transmission and just Keep reading
Why Do Backwards Wings Exist?
Over the years, there have been many odd airplane designs, but one you probably haven’t seen much is the forward-swept wing. While most early aircraft featured straight wings, rear-swept wings are Keep reading
Noisy Jets
One major problem that has plagued supersonic aircraft is their noise. The Concorde – thus far the only supersonic commercial airliner – was plagued with noise complaints that ultimately restricted Keep reading
Vortices and Ground Effect
Though typically unseen, the vortices that swirl from the tips of aircraft wings are powerful. Here you see a Hawker Sea Fury equipped with a smoke system used to visualize Keep reading
Stall with Pitching Foils
For a fixed-wing aircraft, stall – the point where airflow around the wing separates and lift is lost – is an enemy. It’s the precursor to a stomach-turning freefall for Keep reading
Star Wars Aerodynamics
Science fiction is not always known for hewing to scientific fact, so it will probably come as little surprise that Star Wars’ ships have terrible aerodynamics. But it’s nevertheless fun Keep reading
Seeing the Wake
Hot exhaust gases churn in the wake of this climbing B-1B Lancer. The high temperature of the exhaust changes the density and, thus, the refractive index of the gases relative Keep reading