AGK Question
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 118
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From: London
AGK Question
When an aircraft is in a steady climb, the aerodynamic lift is ......... the weight.
A. Balanced by
B. Equal to
C. Less than
D. Greater than
The answer is given as Less than (C). I am absolutely going mad over this as I clearly can't understand why, Please help. I always thought the lift is greater than the weight in a climb.
G CEXO
A. Balanced by
B. Equal to
C. Less than
D. Greater than
The answer is given as Less than (C). I am absolutely going mad over this as I clearly can't understand why, Please help. I always thought the lift is greater than the weight in a climb.
G CEXO
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 227
Likes: 0
From: UK
I think we can accept that weight is constant for a given moment in time. Lets also assume for the sake of simplicity that lift acts vertically upwards in opposition to weight. Thrust acts along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. Now in a climb the aircraft pitch angle is angled slightly upwards which effectively adds some thrust to the lift. For the forces to balance we must reduce the lift to less than weight, so that the sum of lift and the thrust acting vertically now equal weight.
