Project Objective

The purpose of this project is to explore how airspeed affects lift force using mathematics, Excel, and aerospace engineering fundamentals.

Research Question

How does airspeed affect lift force?

Analysis Parameters

Air Density:

• 1.225 kg/m³

Wing Area:

• 30 m²

Lift Coefficient:

• 0.85

Lift Equation: L = 0.5 × ρ × V² × S × CL

Key Findings

The analysis showed that lift increases significantly as airspeed increases.

What surprised me most was that lift does not increase at the same rate as speed. Even a relatively small increase in airspeed produced a much larger increase in lift force.

This happened because velocity is squared in the lift equation.

The results helped me better understand why airspeed is one of the most important factors affecting flight performance.

Aerospace Concepts

• Aerodynamics
• Lift Force
• Flight Performance
• Airspeed
• Aerospace Engineering Fundamentals

Skills Demonstrated

• Quantitative Thinking
• Applied Mathematics
• Excel Analysis
• Data Visualization
• Aerodynamics
• Engineering Problem Solving

What I Learned

Before working on this analysis, I knew that faster aircraft generally generate more lift.

However, I did not realize how strongly lift depends on airspeed.

The results showed that doubling airspeed does not simply double lift. Instead, lift increases much more rapidly because velocity is squared in the lift equation.

This helped me better understand one of the basic ideas behind aerodynamics and aircraft flight.

Future Improvements

• Air Density Analysis
• Wing Area Comparison
• Lift Coefficient Analysis
• Aircraft Takeoff Simulation
• Python-Based Lift Calculator

Engineering Notes

While working on this analysis, I wanted to better understand how aircraft wings generate lift and why airspeed plays such an important role in flight.

Using Excel and the standard lift equation, I compared lift force at different airspeeds while keeping the other variables constant.

One of the most interesting discoveries was that lift does not increase linearly with speed. Small increases in airspeed produced much larger increases in lift force because velocity is squared in the equation.

This project helped me better understand how mathematics can be used to explain flight behavior and how engineers analyze aircraft performance.

Small increases in speed can produce much larger increases in lift.

Project Files

• Excel Spreadsheet Excel Spreadsheet
• Data Visualization Data Visualization
• Engineering Notes Engineering Notes

Author

Sarp AKAR