PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why heavier aircrafts take longer to slow down in the air?
Old 23rd Nov 2012, 20:13
  #70 (permalink)  
HazelNuts39
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: France - mostly
Age: 84
Posts: 1,682
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Well ...

The two aircraft shown in post #49 have the same L/D at about 226 kts. At that speed, and only at that speed, both airplanes slow down at the same rate. As the speed reduces below 226 kts the L/D's of the two aircraft will change differently and hence the rate of slowing down will be different, as shown in the graph.

P.S. I deleted the above immediately after posting it Because I saw that while writing there had been several new posts and I wanted to read those first. Sorry for any confusion.

P.S.2 I suggest you could consider the component of weight that acts in the direction of the flight path as the glider's equivalent of thrust, but momentum is not thrust.
HazelNuts39 is offline