How Airplanes and Jets Fly
Understand what keeps tons of metal smoothly suspended in the sky and how pilots command every movement. Explore the physics of wings, the mechanics of control surfaces, and the sheer power of modern jet engines.
Like Duolingo, but for How Airplanes and Jets Fly. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 10 levels across 2 sections, about 20 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Controlling Flight in the Air and Engines and the High-Altitude Cruise. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Airplanes and Jets Fly
- A wing's curved shape and upward tilt deflect incoming air downward as the plane flies forward
- Pushing air down forces the airplane up into the sky in response
- Air must continuously flow around the wing rather than being trapped underneath
- In steady level flight, the upward lift from wings directly counteracts the airplane's weight from gravity
- The forward push from jet engines or propellers balances the backward drag of air resistance
- If any of these forces becomes stronger than its opposite, the airplane climbs, descends, speeds up, or slows down
- Airplane wings only generate lift when air rushes across their surfaces
- Stopping forward movement stops airflow over the wings, causing the airplane to fall even at full engine power
- Unlike helicopters with spinning rotor blades, fixed wings require the entire plane to travel forward through the air
- An aerodynamic stall happens when a wing tilts up at too steep an angle relative to incoming air
- When tilted too steep, air can no longer follow the wing's curved top smoothly and detaches in turbulent swirls
- Losing smooth airflow over the top surface immediately destroys lift, regardless of engine power
- Airplanes don't turn like cars by simply swinging their nose sideways; they bank their wings using ailerons
- Banking tilts the wing's lift force sideways, pulling the entire airplane through the curve
- Ailerons work in opposite directions on each wing tip to roll the plane into the bank
- Elevators on the horizontal tail tilt the airplane's nose up or down (pitch)
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Airplanes and Jets Fly the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens to the plane when its wings push a giant river of air downward?
Get it right to open this lesson and 9 more in the app.
Where How Airplanes and Jets Fly takes you
- 1
Controlling Flight in the Air
- How Wings Generate Lift
- Steering in Three Dimensions
- 2
Engines and the High-Altitude Cruise
- How Jet Engines Produce Continuous Thrust
- High-Altitude Flight and Turbulence
2 sections · 4 units · 10 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Airplanes and Jets Fly is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How Airplanes and Jets Fly today.
Download Tomo, search How Airplanes and Jets Fly, and play your first lesson in under a minute.