Flight of a Glider

Initializing live version
Download to Desktop

Requires a Wolfram Notebook System

Interact on desktop, mobile and cloud with the free Wolfram Player or other Wolfram Language products.

This Demonstration shows the flight path of a glider, depending on the initial velocity of the plane, its release angle, and the plane's drag coefficient . The flight is governed by Lanchester's system of autonomous nonlinear differential equations:

[more]

,

,

where is the velocity of the plane at a given time and is the angle between the horizontal and the plane at time . The plot shows the distance traveled versus the height of the plane above the ground.

[less]

Contributed by: Helmut Knaust (January 2013)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


Snapshots


Details

Reference

[1] F. W. Lanchester, Aerial Flight: Aerodonetics, London: Constable, 1908.



Feedback (field required)
Email (field required) Name
Occupation Organization
Note: Your message & contact information may be shared with the author of any specific Demonstration for which you give feedback.
Send