Qboy said:
or net force is not same as force ??
There are several forces acting on an airplane flying through the air.
One is gravity of the Earth which is tying to pull the plane downwards.
Another is the lift from the wings.
If these 2 forces are balanced, then the plane will stay in the air at an altitude.
Increase the lift then the plane will climb upwards.
Decrease the lift and the plane will descend.
Since the weight of the plane, from gravity, is mainly constant, the pilot has to use his controls to make the plane climb from takeoff or descend for a landing.
What the pilot is doing is changing the vertical net force on the plane.
As an equation this would be, for the vertical direction(s),
F_{net} = F_{lift} - F_{gravity}
You can see from the equation that when F_{net} = 0 the plane will stay at a constant altitude. Or, ascend or descend if the forces from the lift or gravity are not zero. You can also see that even when the vertival net force is equal to zero, this does not mean there are no forces acting on the plane.
We can think about it in the same way for the velocity of the plane in the horizontal direction.
We have 2 forces - the drag from the air, and the thrust from the engines.
Decrease the thrust and the plane will slow down.
Increase the thrust and the plane will speed up.
Keep the engine thrust the same as the air drag and the plane will fly at a constant velocity.
Then at a constant velocity, the horizontal net force = 0, but we still have forces acting on the plane, except these horizontal forces, the thrust and the air drag are equal to one another.