Pilot Institute

JUNE 4, 2025

Have you ever seen an airplane with no tail and no vertical fin, but with just a sleek wing? A tailless aircraft is a fixed-wing airplane without a horizontal stabilizing surface. A tailless airplane is one where everything needed to fly, like lift, control, and stability, is built into the main wing.

Tail 52

Tail Airplanes Weight-Shift-Control Drag 52

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 9, 2025

Airplane wings vary in shape and size, but all have standard features like the chord line. In general, the chord line is used as an easy-to-understand reference when referring to the properties of a wing or airfoil. The mean camber line is drawn halfway between the upper and lower surfaces. What Is the Chord Line in Aviation?

Center of Gravity 52

Center of Gravity Camber Lift Airfoil 52

Pilot Institute

MARCH 13, 2025

Airfoils use this principle, with faster airflow over the top creating lower pressure. Wing Camber Wing camber defines how much more curved the wings upper surface is compared to the lower surface. Engineers use Bernoullis principle to shape airfoils to optimize the pressure difference needed for efficient lift generation.

Pilot 52

Pilot Lift Camber Airfoil 52

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 9, 2025

Airplane wings vary in shape and size, but all have standard features like the chord line. In general, the chord line is used as an easy-to-understand reference when referring to the properties of a wing or airfoil. The mean camber line is drawn halfway between the upper and lower surfaces. What Is the Chord Line in Aviation?

Center of Gravity 59

Center of Gravity Camber Lift Airfoil 59

Pilot Institute

JULY 11, 2025

Making the wing relatively flat on top with a blunter leading edge and more curvature on the bottom gives you a supercritical airfoil. For most aircraft with highly cambered wings or thick profiles, airflow accelerates over the top of the wing. Even the wing cross-section can be designed to redirect shock waves.

Pilot 52

Pilot True Airspeed Indicated Airspeed Lift 52

Flight Training Central

JUNE 30, 2025

When he created his principle of differential pressure, he had no thoughts about its future application to the development of airfoils and lift production. With some imagination this looks a bit like the top of an airfoil. In the case of our airfoil, we’ll assume that the fluid is air and that the air is relatively still.

Airfoil 59

Airfoil Drag Lift Pilot 59

Pilot Institute

APRIL 12, 2025

Application of Newton’s Third Law in Aviation When we talk about airplanes, we focus primarily on two forces: Lift (how the aircraft stays aloft). They are designed with a special shape called an airfoil, which encourages passing air to turn and deflect downward. This has only been possible by understanding the laws of physics.

Torque 52

Torque Lift Thrust Aileron 52