Physics of Flight: Mechanisms and Applications

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INTRODUCTION
Flight refers to the process by which the heavy objects move through the air without making
any contact with the surface of the earth. This can be made possible by generating an
aerodynamic lift which is normally associated with propulsive thrust. Other mechanisms may
include aero statistically method that uses buoyancy or even the ballistic motions.
In general, many things can actually fly ranging from the natural aviators like the birds,
insects and bats. The human invention such as aircrafts which includes airplane, balloons,
helicopters and the rockets constitutes the space crafts1.
PROJECT AIMS
The engineering concept of the flight is technically covered in the aerospace engineering.
This branch of engineering has been subdivided into aeronautics which focusses on the study
of the vehicles that travel in the air, astronautics that focuses on the study of the vehicles that
travel through the space and finally ballistics that deal with the study of the projectile
motions2.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Mechanical flight
This refers to the use of the machines to facilitate the flight. The commonly used machines
include the aircrafts such as the airplanes, airships, helicopters as well as the spacecrafts. The
other forms of the mechanical flight are the para-sailing where the parachute like objects is
moved through pulling using boats.
The groups of the living organisms that can fly normally uses powered flights like for the
cases of the birds, bats and the insects of the species of the insects that can fly uses
aerodynamic models that creates a leading-edge vortex that is common in most of the insect

in deed. The flying frogs use their much enlarged webbed feet to facilitate their movements.
The flying snakes use mobile ribs to flatten their body parts into a shape that allow
aerodynamic movements
METHODOLOGY
Buoyant flight
Humans have managed to build very light vehicles of the air that can take off from the
ground as a result of buoyancy in the air3. An aerostat is a system that has been thoroughly
utilised through buoyancy in which the aircraft is given the same density as the air. The
aerostats include those free balloons, the moored balloons and the airships. The main
component of an aerostat is the envelope which is a very lightweight skin enclosing a volume
of the lifting gas thereby providing buoyancy to the attached component.
Aerostats are called so since they use the aerostatic lift. Aerostatic lift refers to a buoyant
force that does not require lateral movement through the surrounding mass of air to facilitate
the flight. The air pressure acting up against an object in air normally goes higher than the
pressure that is pushing down on the very object. The buoyancy in whichever case equals the
weight of the displaced fluid. This is in accordance with the principles of the Archimedes.