More than one century after the Wright brothers' first flight, the flight still defy our intuition. You will learn here how to name the different parts of the airplane and how to describe and quantify its geometry. For that, we need now to share a precise vocabulary to describe the airplane's movement and attitude in space, and a refresher on basic general mechanic principles. You will remind how Newton's 2nd law allows you to determine what force must be applied on an apple - or on an airplane, to modify the magnitude and direction of its speed. Coming back on the concepts of kinetic energy and potential energy, you will discover the very useful concept of total height and you will be able to explain how an airplane can quickly exchange speed for altitude, while changes in total height are much slower.
In the end, you will discover that only a very small number of forces apply on an airplane in flight and that you will be able to classify those that change its energy state and those that modify its trajectory. You will discover the concept of load factor and understand why the pilot of a combat aircraft can feel a weight nine-time greater than his actual weight! Finally, we will establish the lift and propulsion equations, that form the basis of flight mechanics, and you will be able to compute the lift and thrust necessary to follow a given trajectory at a given speed.
This course is for anybody interested in learning more about how planes work, the physics of flying, or flight mechanics. It will be of particular interest to undergraduate students in aerospace engineering, trainees as well as senior pilots, journalists, and professionals in the aeronautics sector.
Although some mathematical formalism may be present sometimes. It is always doubled by sketches, figures, and hands-explanations. So that, anybody can skip the formulas without losing the core understanding of the concepts.
No apples were harmed in the making of this course...
This course is only a foretaste of the mechanics of flight. ISAE-SUPAERO and Eric Poquillon will offer you other courses and the first specialization in autumn 2021. Initially, three courses will be published to answer several questions: Can we fly as high as we want? What is a stall? Why do some planes have propellers and others have jet engines? Is an airplane always stable? How do you control an airplane following an engine failure? All this and more will be covered in this series of flight mechanics courses.
This course is a part of the specialization "Fundamentals of Flight mechanics".
Status: Applied Mathematics
Applied Mathematics
Status: Mechanics
Mechanics
Beginner·Course·7 hours
Featured reviews
C
5.0·Reviewed Nov 4, 2022
I am glad I took this course, it was worthwhile and I learned more than I had expected. Thank you to the team that compiled this course and to anyone interested I would highly recommend taking it.
ET
5.0·Reviewed May 28, 2022
Very good course that give the basics principles of Flight Mechanics, recommended for anybody interested to learn aerospace engineering
AJ
5.0·Reviewed Apr 14, 2024
It really is worth your time and it will give you a good introduction as to how things work in aerodynamics, specifically for planes that is.
EW
5.0·Reviewed Jul 31, 2022
I have a great experienced in following this course. Great explanation and instruction from ISAE-SUPAERO adn Mr. Eric
JS
5.0·Reviewed Jan 4, 2022
The videos were extremely concise, and I felt I really learned a lot from this course. Although I'm 13 years old, I managed to push through with my love for planes.
VV
5.0·Reviewed May 15, 2024
The examples and illustrations are helpful. The instructor seems to take interest in teaching. I didn't pass with flying colors, but the I learned a lot.
IM
5.0·Reviewed Sep 14, 2022
Very insightful! Would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in aviation and wanting to deepen their knowledge in the field...
SK
5.0·Reviewed Oct 24, 2022
This course is very help full for my career to build knowledge about Flight Mechanics. The teaching is very realestic.
A
4.0·Reviewed Apr 9, 2025
For beginners its a great course in the start and middle, but in the ending it might confuse the beginners. As a beginner, loved the course.
DO
5.0·Reviewed Jul 10, 2022
i am super happy with my achievement. i would love to say a big thank you to coursera for providing this platform for learning
TS
4.0·Reviewed Jan 17, 2022
This course was more challenging than I expected but its a great course thank you Eric!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UK
5.0·Reviewed Sep 4, 2021
THANKS SIR ERIC FOR TEACHING ME AND OTHERS ABOUT THE BASICS PARTS AND BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FLIGHT AND ITS MECHANICS. A WARM THANKS .
All reviews
Showing: 20 of 123
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Most Helpful
O
Olivier DE PIMODAN
1.0
·Reviewed Aug 11, 2021
This is a painfull not to provide a certificate for this MOOC. The topic are interesting and we may produce effort & time to succed finally without a gratification. For a school like Supaero with this only MOOC , finally it is better for such a subject to go to an other Academic Provider
Z
Zoltán Nagy
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 5, 2021
It need deep learning and attention to write the correct formulas, but it's a big worthless effort without a certificate.
A
alen tom
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 4, 2021
The effort put into the course preparation is too good. Some of the quizzes seemed to be a few levels higher than the course but that's the beauty of it. It makes us think. Great job!
G
Gabriel Celis
4.0
·Reviewed Aug 9, 2021
This course is very useful to learn Flight mechanics, the basics physics, but with the methods of test I get trouble. I got the right answers but the system is very delicate with the commas or the underlines, and give a lot of trouble to approve the test because of that. Also it will be great to have a certificate, but it gives not.
Y
Yu-Cheng Chen
3.0
·Reviewed Aug 16, 2021
The content is helpful and inspiring for those who are interested in Flight Mechanics. However, there are some typo in the quiz (and sometimes they affect the meaning of the problems, for example, the incorrect parameter the speed at the top of the loop "n_C" in the final exam, which should have been "V_C" according to the problem setting). I can see the instructor is trying to use different ways for students to interact with the problems, but it seems that some questions like "choose all the words describing the attitude of the airplane" in the assessment for week 2 is too ambiguous and could not be answered correctly. For the last exam, I have to go back to check the discussion forum to see how others program the answer so that the answer can be accepted by the system before I can pass the exam, even though my derivation for the answer is correct (for example, in the problem, some of the parameters have suffix, so I type, for example, "V_A", and the preview shows the correct suffix, but the form accepted is "VA", which is not suffixed). Generally speaking, if you are not that care about the score and want a definite 100% score, you will have a great time learning this course.
N
Nolan Ortner
3.0
·Reviewed Dec 29, 2023
some concepts were not explained thoroughly enough to fully understand
G
Gudisa Sumanth
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 22, 2022
An amazing course for students pursuing Aerospace/Aeronautical/Mechanical Engineering
The way problems are approached, the teaching methods, the formal humor, the absolutely amazing practial application probelms and assignments is an icing on the cake!
Highly recommend every dreamer out there to take a look at the course
J
Joel Stanesa
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 28, 2024
Terrific course. Easy to understand lectures but beyond simplistic explanations, real world examples, actually doing the calculations to reinforce the learning without being overly technical.
J
Jotaro Satori
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 4, 2022
The videos were extremely concise, and I felt I really learned a lot from this course. Although I'm 13 years old, I managed to push through with my love for planes.
E
Emanuele Antonini
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 10, 2022
This course and specialization is exactly what is needed for those who want to know, in a simple way and starting from a few knowledge, the world of aeronautics.
U
UDAYA KRISHNAN.M
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 5, 2021
THANKS SIR ERIC FOR TEACHING ME AND OTHERS ABOUT THE BASICS PARTS AND BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FLIGHT AND ITS MECHANICS. A WARM THANKS .
S
Sunil Giri
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 11, 2021
Superb course to get along with the basics of flight mechanics. Strongly recommended!
A
aymen msehli
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 21, 2022
excelent teacher thank you
H
H? Xu�n Ng?c Chau
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 18, 2021
this is helpful
G
Gaveau Antonin
4.0
·Reviewed Aug 30, 2021
Interesting course but the formulas to type are were quite hard.
A
Abeeha Batool
4.0
·Reviewed Aug 22, 2021
Learned alot.
A
Abd Madibo
5.0
·Reviewed Jul 21, 2025
This course was a truly enriching and valuable experience for me as an aerospace engineering student. It helped me deepen my understanding of flight dynamics, energy, and load factors. The content was well-structured and the explanations were clear. The exercises were particularly helpful in reinforcing the concepts through practical application. I especially appreciated how the course connected theoretical knowledge with real-world aviation scenarios. I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in aerospace engineering or looking to strengthen their foundational understanding of flight mechanics
R
Ramon Caminero
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 2, 2021
well that goos experience taken this course refresh my memory from school time profesor Poquillon
was excellent wath he give us in that course some people has to study a couple a years en especial all calculation i have Doug and ask a two former pilot and the can not help wo fin al with that and they give me complements to me al the course and profesor they coment was thatb was acomplete course to any one thatb want to be a pilot or aircraft mechanic.
the final tast the shoul be in multiple choice that was some kind the hard but we DIT IT.
THANK YOU.
N
Natasha Sales Xavier
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 18, 2022
This was a very interesting course to learn the basis of aerodynamics. I've learned so much and the material was great. I'd like to thank the professor for using so many resources of learning on this, it really helped me get the visual understanding, specially on the more physics and mathematics part.
J
Julien MOVAHEDI
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 13, 2022
A little bit tough in the end but good introduction to flight mecanics.
I wish there was a course for dumies like me in this subject, but that's okay, the grade to pass are very reasonable.
