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Thrust of Aircraft | How aircraft get its forward motion?



An aircraft gets its forward and reverse motion through the thrust generated by it’s engines. It’s interesting to see how this thrust is changed into motion in aircrafts and spacecrafts. Like any other vehicle, the aircraft too needs a mechanism to convert the power produced by the engine into motion. An aircraft need motion or generated speed, to produce lift. So here are some of the different mechanisms by which an aircraft and spacecraft get it’s forward motion.

 

1.  By the thrust of a rotating airscrew or propeller

Both the piston engine and gas turbine engine can have propellers mounted in front of the engine. A gas turbine engine with propellers in the front are known as turboprop engine. A turboprop engine require shorter runway for takeoff and landing as compared to other gas turbine engine due to thrust developed by both the exhaust as well as the propellers. These propellers are like small airfoils that generate thrust. When the propellers are configured to generate forward thrust, air pressure is more in the aft of the propeller as compared to the forward of the propeller thus moving the aircraft forward. And vice versa when the propellers are configured to generate reverse thrust. So the question is how the pressure difference is created in the propeller. As said earlier the propellers are small airfoils, so when the air passes through it, the curved part of the airfoil experience less static pressure and the flat part of the airfoil experience more static pressure. We know as per Bernoulli’s theorem the sum of total pressure of air remains the same before entering and after exiting the airfoil, so a pressure difference is created. The propellers’ angle can be changed thus changing the pitch and the thrust.

2.  By the thrust of the jet engine

Jet engine exhaust produce thrust. It is how we divert the thrust that produce the respective motion in reverse direction to the thrust. The motion is produced due to Newton’s Third Law of motion i.e. ’Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’.

3.  By the thrust of the main rotors

The main rotors in the helicopter is responsible for change in thrust and motion. The main rotors are also airfoils and the same Bernoulli’s theorem is thus applied, generating thrust.

4.  By the thrust of the rocket

Rocket also generate thrust by the expulsion of exhaust and thus Newton’s Third Law help in the forward motion of the rocket. One big difference of rocket from other engines is, it also carries an oxidiser along with the fuel.

5.  By the hot air in balloons

Hot air balloon is a lighter than air aircraft. The hot air generated by the burning of the gas in hot air balloons make it lighter than surrounding air  thus producing the corresponding motion. By increasing or decreasing the burning rate we can control the motion.

6.  Gliders

Gliders and similar aircrafts generate lift due to the free fall and in this way develop forward motion.

 

So we can see that thrust of aircraft can be generated by varied means and this generate the accompanying motion.


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