The Great Expedition Series, Book 23

A Million Whys: The Flight Expedition for Curious Kids

By Crafty Clover. Published by Million Whys Press.

What Are the Four Forces of Flight? How Does a Jet Engine Work? How Do People Learn to Become Pilots? This book answers 150 questions like these, one question per page, each with a short video answer. Six expeditions: The Four Forces of Flight, Nature’s Flying Machines, Inside an Airplane, Balloons, Helicopters & Gliders, Pilots, Airports & Sky Travel, and Make It Fly, Fly It Safe.

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All 150 questions

Tap a question to watch its video and read the answer.

Expedition 1: The Four Forces of Flight

1. What Are the Four Forces of Flight?
2. What Is Lift, and Where Does It Come From?
3. How Does the Shape of a Wing Help It Climb?
4. What Is Thrust, and How Do Planes Get It?
5. What Is Drag, the Force That Slows Things Down?
6. How Does Weight Pull on Every Flyer?
7. What Is the Angle of Attack?
8. What Is a Stall, and How Do Pilots Handle It?
9. Why Do Planes Need to Go Fast Before They Can Take Off?
10. Why Do Airplanes Take Off Facing Into the Wind?
11. Does a Wing Really Push Air Downward to Go Up?
12. How Are Lift and Weight Balanced in Level Flight?
13. What Happens to the Four Forces During Takeoff, Cruising, and Landing?
14. How Do Ailerons Help a Plane Roll and Turn?
15. What Do the Rudder and Elevator at the Tail Do?
16. What Are Pitch, Roll, and Yaw?
17. Why Does a Plane Tilt to the Side When It Turns?
18. Why Do Some Planes Have Curved-Up Wingtips?
19. Why Do Big, Heavy Flyers Need Big Wings?
20. Can a Plane Fly Upside Down?
21. Why Do Jets Cruise So High Up Where the Air Is Thin?
22. How Do Wind Tunnels Help Engineers Test Wings?
23. Why Do Airplane Wings Bend Upward in Flight?
24. What Did the Wright Brothers Discover About Flight?
25. How Do the Four Forces Explain a Bird, a Plane, and a Kite?

Expedition 2: Nature’s Flying Machines

26. How Do Feathers Turn a Bird's Wing Into a Flying Machine?
27. Why Do Some Birds Flap Constantly While Others Soar?
28. How Do Light, Hollow Bones Help Birds Fly?
29. How Do Birds Land So Gracefully?
30. What Do a Bird's Tail Feathers Do in the Air?
31. How Does a Heavy Swan Get Off the Water and Into the Air?
32. What Is a Thermal, and How Do Hawks Ride One?
33. How Can an Albatross Cross an Ocean with Hardly Any Flapping?
34. Why Can Ostriches and Penguins Not Fly?
35. How Can an Insect Beat Its Wings Hundreds of Times Each Second?
36. How Does an Insect's Chest Work Like a Wing-Wiggling Box?
37. How Do Bumblebees Fly When People Once Said They Could Not?
38. How Is a Bat's Wing Different From a Bird's Wing?
39. What Is the Difference Between Flying and Gliding for an Animal?
40. Can Snakes and Frogs Glide Through the Air?
41. How Do Dandelion Seeds Sail on a Breath of Wind?
42. How Do Baby Birds Learn to Fly?
43. Can Any Bird Sleep While Flying?
44. How Does a Feather Stay Light, Strong, and Smooth?
45. How Far Can a Bird Fly Without Stopping?
46. How Do Birds Change the Shape of Their Wings?
47. Why Do Some Birds Have Long, Pointed Wings and Others Short, Round Ones?
48. How Do Baby Spiders Fly on Silk Threads?
49. Why Can't People Fly by Flapping Wings Tied to Their Arms?
50. What Can Engineers Learn From Flying Animals?

Expedition 3: Inside an Airplane

51. How Does a Jet Engine Work?
52. What Does the Huge Fan at the Front of a Jet Engine Do?
53. What Do All the Dials in a Cockpit Tell the Pilots?
54. How Does an Altimeter Know How High a Plane Is?
55. How Does a Plane Know How Fast the Air Is Flowing Past It?
56. What Is an Artificial Horizon, and Why Do Pilots Need It?
57. What Does an Autopilot Do?
58. Why Do Planes Fold Their Wheels Up After Takeoff?
59. Why Is the "Black Box" on an Airplane Actually Orange?
60. What Makes the White Trails That Jets Leave Behind?
61. Why Do Airplane Windows Have Round Corners and a Tiny Hole?
62. How Does a Plane Keep the Air Comfortable at 35,000 Feet?
63. What Is Turbulence, and Why Does It Happen?
64. Why Do Flight Attendants Ask for Tray Tables and Seats to Be Upright?
65. Why Are Most Airplanes Painted White?
66. What Are the Panels That Pop Up on the Wings After Landing?
67. How Do Airplanes Slow Down So Fast After They Land?
68. What Is an Airplane Made Of?
69. How Many Parts Does a Jumbo Jet Have?
70. How Do Planes Get Cleared of Ice in Winter?
71. What Happens When Lightning Strikes an Airplane?
72. Where Does an Airplane Carry Its Fuel?
73. Where Do Suitcases and Cargo Ride on an Airplane?
74. How Can a Plane Land Safely in Thick Fog?
75. How Can a Floatplane Take Off From a Lake?

Expedition 4: Balloons, Helicopters & Gliders

76. What Makes a Helium Balloon Float Up While a Regular Balloon Sinks?
77. Why Does Helium Change the Sound of a Voice?
78. What Do the Burner and the Top Vent Do During a Balloon Ride?
79. How Can a Balloonist Pick a Direction Without a Steering Wheel?
80. When Did People First Fly in a Balloon?
81. What Makes a Blimp Different From a Drifting Balloon?
82. Why Do Airships Use Helium Instead of Hydrogen?
83. Why Does a Weather Balloon Swell as It Rises, and Then Pop?
84. How Do the Spinning Blades of a Helicopter Make Lift?
85. Why Does a Helicopter Have a Little Propeller on Its Tail?
86. How Does a Helicopter Lean to Fly Forward?
87. Why Can a Helicopter Fly Sideways and Backward?
88. What Happens If a Helicopter's Engine Stops?
89. What Jobs Do Helicopters Do?
90. How Do Paragliders Stay Up in the Air?
91. How Can a Sailplane Glide for Hundreds of Miles?
92. What Is a Glide Ratio?
93. How Does a Boomerang Come Back?
94. What Is the Difference Between Lighter-Than-Air and Heavier-Than-Air Flight?
95. What Are Electric Air Taxis?
96. Can a Plane Fly Using Only Sunshine?
97. How Do Stunt Pilots Do Loops and Rolls?
98. How Do Firefighting Planes Scoop Up Water From a Lake?
99. Can a Plane Fly on Human Leg Power?
100. How Do Bush Planes Land on Short, Bumpy Strips?

Expedition 5: Pilots, Airports & Sky Travel

101. How Do People Learn to Become Pilots?
102. What Is a Flight Simulator?
103. What Do Pilots Check Before They Take Off?
104. Why Do Airports Scan Bags with X-Rays?
105. Why Do Pilots Say "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie" When They Talk on the Radio?
106. What Does an Air Traffic Controller Do?
107. Why Does an Airport Have a Tall Control Tower?
108. How Do Planes Stay Safely Apart in a Crowded Sky?
109. How Does Radar See Airplanes?
110. How Do Pilots Find Their Way Across an Ocean?
111. Why Do Flight Paths Look Curved on a Flat Map?
112. Why Do Runways Have Numbers?
113. What Do the Lines and Lights on a Runway Mean?
114. Why Do Airports Have So Many Different Kinds of Vehicles?
115. Why Does a Tug Push an Airplane Away From the Gate?
116. How Long Does It Take to Get a Plane Ready Between Flights?
117. Why Does a Flight From Toronto to London Take Less Time than the Trip Back?
118. What Is Jet Lag?
119. How Far Can You See From a Plane Window?
120. How Many Planes Are in the Sky at Once?
121. How Do Airports Keep Birds Away From Runways?
122. Why Does a Puff of Smoke Appear When a Plane Lands?
123. What Are Some of the Biggest Airplanes Ever Built?
124. How Did Concorde Cross the Atlantic in About Three Hours?
125. How Are New Airplanes Tested Before They Carry People?

Expedition 6: Make It Fly, Fly It Safe

126. Which Paper Plane Designs Fly the Farthest, and Why?
127. How Do You Test a Paper Plane Fairly?
128. What Happens When You Put a Paper Clip on the Tail of a Plane?
129. Why Do Paper Planes Fly Steadier When Their Wings Tilt Up Into a Shallow V?
130. How Can Small Bends in the Back of the Wings Stop a Plane From Diving?
131. Why Does a Paper Helicopter Spin as It Falls?
132. Do Bigger Wings Always Fly Better?
133. What Do the Tail and String of a Kite Do?
134. Where Is It Safe to Fly a Kite?
135. What Makes a Diamond Kite Fly Well?
136. What Is Special About a Box Kite?
137. How Do Stunt Kites Use Two Strings to Steer?
138. How Can a Twisted Rubber Band Power a Tiny Airplane?
139. How Can You Tell Which Way the Wind Is Blowing?
140. Why Does a Feather Fall More Slowly than a Coin?
141. Why Do Phones Need Airplane Mode on a Plane?
142. Why Must Everyone Stay Far From a Spinning Propeller or a Running Jet Engine?
143. Why Is Flying One of the Safest Ways to Travel?
144. What Jobs Help Planes Fly Besides Pilots?
145. How Do Mechanics Keep Planes in Top Shape?
146. Can a Balloon on a String Show How Thrust Works?
147. How Can You Graph the Results of Your Flight Tests?
148. Why Can a Ring-Shaped Straw Glider Fly?
149. Which Sky Puzzles Are Engineers Still Working On?
150. What Should Every Young Pilot-In-Training Remember About Flight?