Subject: Introduction into Major

Lecture 3
1. Principles of flight
2. Air properties
 Principles of flight
• Flight is the process by which an object moves through an atmosphere (or
beyond it, as in the case of spaceflight) without contact with the surface.
This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with 
propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement.

Aerospace engineering which is subdivided into 

aeronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through the air, and
astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and 
ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles.
 Types of flight - Jet propulsion flight

It is this very principle that makes jet planes go forwards and rockets move to the moon. For the rocket to go up, it needs
an opposite force that is stronger than gravity. In practice, that force is obtained using high-speed gases that are expelled
downwards.
 Types of flight - Aerodynamic flight
• Lift force is the result of object motion through the air
Types of flight -
Buoyant flight
An aerostat's main structural
component is its envelope, a
lightweight skin that encloses a
volume of lifting gas to provide 
buoyancy, to which other
components are attached.

An airship flies because the upward force, from air displacement, is equal
to or greater than the force of gravity

Archimedes’ principle states that:

The upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether partially
or fully submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces and acts in
the upward direction at the center of mass of the displaced fluid.
 Types of flight - Ballistic flight
• Lift force is formed by inertia force or flying body according to initial
store of speed or altitude
The study of model rockets, the flight of a baseball, or the
"bend" of a soccer kick are excellent ways for students to
learn the basics of forces and the response of an object to
external forces. A ball in flight has no engine to produce
continuous thrust and the resulting flight is similar to the
flight of shell from a cannon, or a bullet from a gun. This
type of flight is called ballistic flight and on this page we
present the equations that describe ballistic flight. Ballistic
flight only occurs under the ideal conditions that weight is
the only force acting on the object. There is no thrust and
no aerodynamic drag acting on an object in ballistic flight.
Such flight conditions would occur on the Moon, where
there is no atmosphere to produce drag.
By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95%
oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small
amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount
of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and
0.4% over the entire atmosphere.
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases,
commonly known as air, retained by Earth's gravity,
surrounding the planet Earth and forming its planetary 
atmosphere.
The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by
creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the
Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation,
warming the surface through heat retention (
greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes
between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).

Air composition, temperature, and atmospheric pressure

 vary with altitude.

•Exosphere: 700 to 10,000 km (440 to 6,200 miles)

•Thermosphere: 80 to 700 km (50 to 440 miles)
•Mesosphere: 50 to 80 km (31 to 50 miles)
•Stratosphere: 12 to 50 km (7 to 31 miles)
•Troposphere: 0 to 12 km (0 to 7 miles)
 Air properties

• Air is a mixture of gaseous elements and compounds. These include

nitrogen, oxygen, water, argon, and carbon dioxide. Surprisingly, the
element nitrogen makes up the largest proportion of Earth’s air. Oxygen
makes up the second largest portion of air.
• Although air appears invisible to us, it has mass and takes up space like
other types of matter. Because of this, air exerts pressure.
• The air surrounding the Earth is held in place by gravity. Gravity pulls the
air toward the Earth’s surface giving the air its weight. Air pressure is the
weight of a column of air pushing down on a portion of the Earth’s surface.
As you move up into the atmosphere the air pressure decreases. This is
because at higher altitudes there is less air pushing down from above.
 Air properties
Air has weight. 
The sum of the mass of all the molecules is equal to the mass of the gas. A gas occupies some
volume in three dimensional space. For a given pressure and temperature, the volume depends
directly on the amount of gas.
Air has a volume. Air occupies a specific volume. This volume is inter-related with pressure and
temperature. If you squeeze air into a smaller space the air gets hotter. 
Air is under pressure. Air is under pressure; this is caused by gravity. 
The pressure of a gas equals the perpendicular force exerted by the gas divided by the surface area
on which the force is exerted. 
Air has temperature. Like most things around us, air expands when it gets hot and contracts when
it gets cold. Temperature has an effect on Volume, and that Volume has an effect on Pressure.
The temperature of a gas is a measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules of the gas. 
Air has a viscosity. A gas can exert a tangential (shearing) force on a surface, which acts like friction
between solid surfaces. This "sticky" property of the gas is called the viscosity and it plays a large
role in aerodynamic drag.
Standard sea-level conditions