Fly in Cockpit: Does It Feel 5 Gs?

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SUMMARY

When an aircraft pulls 5 Gs during a positive acceleration maneuver, the fly inside the cockpit experiences an increase in effective weight due to the acceleration forces. As the aircraft accelerates upwards, the fly, which generates lift through wing flapping, will be unable to counteract the increased gravitational force and will fall to the cockpit floor unless it can flap its wings rapidly enough. This phenomenon is analogous to a helium balloon that remains unaffected by the G-forces due to its equilibrium with the surrounding air, highlighting the difference in behavior between lighter-than-air objects and heavier insects like the fly.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of basic physics principles, particularly Newton's laws of motion.
  • Knowledge of aerodynamics and how lift is generated by wing flapping.
  • Familiarity with G-forces and their effects on objects in a moving aircraft.
  • Concept of equilibrium in fluid dynamics, specifically regarding buoyancy in air.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the effects of G-forces on living organisms in aviation environments.
  • Study the principles of aerodynamics related to insect flight mechanics.
  • Explore Newton's laws of motion in the context of aviation and acceleration.
  • Learn about the behavior of objects in non-inertial reference frames, such as aircraft during maneuvers.
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Aerospace engineers, physics students, aviation enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the effects of acceleration on living organisms in flight environments.

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A friend of mine likes to e-mail me a question of the day. I need a little help on this one.

When you close the canopy on your aircraft you notice there is a fly inside. You then takeoff and get up to altitude. The fly is flying inside the cockpit when you put 5 Gs on the aircraft - question - is the flying pulling 5 Gs too? And, if not, will the fly splatter against the windscreen as you pull 5 Gs?
 
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Im assuming you're asking pulling positive 'g's and not negative. In that case, the fly would smash into the floor of the aircraft, for the same reason that your rear end gets smashed into the seat when you pull the g's. acceleration forces in the positive range cause the aircraft to 'accelerate', thus the fly who is flying his own flight would meet the aircrafts floor.
 
To help clarify, let me provide another example: a helium balloon that is at equilibrium with the air in the cockpit (not rising to the top or falling to the bottom). Since it weighs exactly the same as the surrounding air, pulling g's would not affect it.

But a fly weighs more than the surrounding air. It's flapping it's wings to create lift equivalent to it's weight. When the plane pulls 5 g's, the fly's weight goes up 5x and it falls to the floor unless it can beat it's wings faster.

Welcome aboard, both of you.
 
i don't understand, because you guys are saying the fly meets the ground when you are "pulling" 5gs i don't uderstand why the fly hits the ground would he be pushed to back if you were accelerating forward, or maybe you are not acceleration forward you are pulling up causing the increase in gs.

i don't know...
 
When you "pull g" in an aircraft what you are doing is changing the straigh flight path into a curved flight path upwards. So when the aircraft is following that curve, Newton has ordered that things, not forced to do something else, to continue moving in a straigth line. So that straight line of the fly eventually meets the cockpit floor in its curved path upwards.
 
Thanks to all for your help.
 

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