Kids Get Insight Into Flight

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Kids Get Insight Into Flight
June 05, 2008
Navy News|by Jim Markle

NORTH ISLAND, CA - By combining paper airplanes with a lot of fun, engineers from Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) introduced 22 fifth-graders from Hancock Elementary School to the aerodynamics of flight during Naval Air Systems Command's Science Enrichment Day, May 22.

Part of the Navy's Partnership in Education program, the 17th annual visit was kicked off by electronics engineer Melinda Wasche, who presented a slideshow of aircraft serviced by FRCSW.

She explained the major components of an aircraft and their relation to the four forces affecting flight: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.

"For a plane to fly straight and level the lift has to be equal to the weight, and the thrust has to be equal to the drag," she said.

Wasche also explained how jet propulsion engines push an aircraft forward, while propeller engines pull an aircraft forward.


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