how can a 500kg glider stay up in the air?

Question

need to know why itz part of my coursework

Answer 1

Gliders, being unpowered, do not stay in the air indefinitely...they are continuously falling.
Somehow (through various means) a glider is raised up into the air and released. At the very top, the glider has some amount of gravitational potential energy which is gradually expends to gain kinetic energy (so it can fly). In order to keep moving, the glider must slowly fall.
How fast the glider falls depends on its mass and dimensions. A large factor in determining how long the glider can stay in the air is its wingspan. A larger wingspan allows the glider to "glide" better and keep itself up longer for a given mass....but make no mistake about it, it is still going to come down eventually.

Answer 2

First of all I am presuming that you are not a science wiz.. So forget Bernoulli's principle and read this.
The Glider stays up by virtue of it's movement through the air.. It is this movement that provides what we call LIFT to the glider..
The wings attached to the glider always strike the air at an angle (ever tried putting your hand out of a fast moving car at an angle .. something like this " \ ".. you will feel that your hand is being pushed up)
thus it is the air that is pushing the glider up by virtue of it's movement..
it is wrong to say that the glider is always falling.. gliders even climb (using thermals or even by componsating by speed).. but it is true that no glider can stay up in the air indefinately.. unlike powered airplanes which constantly provide thrust to keep the airplane moving forward..
And as long as any airplane keeps moving forward it will stay in air..

P.S. This answer comes to you from an Airbus 320 pilot !! ;-)

Answer 3

This is based on Bernoulli's principle, which states, in simple terms, that air flowing faster across the top portion of the glider has lower pressure. Air flowing slower across the lower portion of the glider has higher pressure.
There is an equation which quantitatively states this relationship between velocity of air flowing and the pressure the flowing air exerts on a nearby surface.
The difference in the higher pressure at the lower surface of the glider and the lower pressure at the upper surface, multiplied by the cross-sectional area of the glider surface can give an upward force of 500 kilogram-force. This keeps the glider up.

It is the basic principle how huge heavy airplanes (like the latest Airbus A380) can take flight.

Answer 4

Due to it's movement through the air, the wings are generating 500Kg of lift, therefore the glider will stay up.
Due to air resistance though, the glider has to maintain a slight down glide to maintain a consistant speed, therefore consistant lift, unless the glider can find air moving upward to compensate.

Answer 5

Yes of course. When discussing flying and gliding, the main factor that you need to look at is not weight, its wingspan. When a glider flys through the air, the wings are pushing against the air and keep the gilder up. With the right ammount of wingspan, even the heavyest gliders can fly.

Answer 6

I seem to recall that Bernouli's Principle allows for the shape of the airfoil to create lower air pressure on top of the wing due to the higher speed of the air passing over it relative to the speed of the air passing under it, thereby creating lift. Thermal updrafts help, too...

Answer 7

because of flow of air that force to glider.