THE PHYSICS OF FLIGHT
WHY DO PLANES FLY?
Even the most well-educated might need help explaining a graduate school-level concept of how airflow works to give a plane lift. The marketing team was trying to figure out how to explain it so everyone would understand.
As the team arrived at the ILG terminal – a little girl, probably about eight years old, stopped us. She pointed to the front terminal windows and asked, “What is that pretty design?”
“What a wonderful question,” someone said, “We were just getting ready to decide how to tell the story of the newly unveiled window design, the ILG Wave. The wave symbolizes Bernoulli’s Principle, the reason airplanes can fly.”
Airplane Wings and Bernoulli’s Principle
What gives an airplane lift? When air passes over and under the wing, as airspeed increases, a reduction in pressure on the top of the wing produces a lift force.
This force that is created by the difference between the high and low pressure is called “lift.” The faster-moving air above the wing has a lower pressure than the slower-moving air under the wing. The higher pressure will push past the lower pressure, which helps the plane to lift off as the plane accelerates down the runway for take-off.
This important principle of flight is named after Daniel Bernoulli. Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician who published the original equation that led to the principle in his 1738 book Hydrodynamics.
The ILG Terminal Redesign
The decision to use this shape – the Bernoulli Wave – in the redesign of the ILG Terminal Exterior (coming in 2025/6) was very intentional. It’s elegant and beautiful, and it relates directly to the concept of air travel and flight. The DRBA is in the process of beginning a redesign of the terminal exterior. While we await the redesign, we added the star element of the future terminal redesign to the front window.
Pictured below is the reimagined terminal exterior design by Rob Barth and Co.
