Many Americans are afraid of flying — yet for many, it’s a key form of travel for work or get home to loved ones for the holidays.
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Many Americans are afraid of flying — yet for many, it’s a key form of travel for work or get home to loved ones for the holidays.
fhm/Getty Images
There are many statistics out there that prove that flying on a commercial airplane is safe, that plane crashes are, on the whole, pretty unlikely. But still, up to an estimated 40% of Americans feel some fear at the thought of flying.
So amid the travel rush of the holiday season, we ask MIT aeronautical engineer Mark Drela once and for all: How does a plane lift off and stay up in the air?
Interested in more stories on physics? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We’d love to hear from you!
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This episode was produced by Jessica Yung and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Kwesi Lee was the audio engineer.
