Aeroplanes have always fascinated me. Hundreds of human bodies, tons of jet fuel, one long aluminum cylinder, propelled through the air by two (sometimes more) fan like engines at just a tad under the speed of sound. On our own, we can barely jump and stay off the ground for more than a couple of seconds at a time. How then did the human race get these flying machines into the air at all? The thought is simply mind boggling. Lift, weight, thrust and drag  The laws of physics breaks it down elegantly. In the air, a plane is subjected to four forces. Weight is the pull of the earth’s gravitational pull. It acts on you and me and all objects within its gravitational field, planes included. To counter weight, a plane needs to produce lift. Lift is created when air over the wing travels at a faster speed than ......