Thrust is a
reaction
Reaction may refer to a process or to a response to an action, event, or exposure:
Physics and chemistry
*Chemical reaction
*Nuclear reaction
* Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law
*Chain reaction (disambiguation).
Biology and m ...
force described quantitatively by
Newton's third law
Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows:
# A body remains at rest, or in moti ...
. When a system expels or
accelerates mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
but opposite direction to be applied to that system.
The force applied on a surface in a direction perpendicular or
normal Normal(s) or The Normal(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Normal'' (2003 film), starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson
* ''Normal'' (2007 film), starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, Callum Keith Rennie, and Andrew Airlie
* ''Norma ...
to the surface is also called thrust. Force, and thus thrust, is measured using the
International System of Units (SI) in
newtons (symbol: N), and represents the amount needed to accelerate 1 kilogram of mass at the rate of 1
meter per second per second. In
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
, force
orthogonal to the main load (such as in parallel
helical gear
A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic p ...
s) is referred to as
static thrust.
Examples
A
fixed-wing aircraft propulsion system generates forward thrust when air is pushed in the direction opposite to flight. This can be done by different means such as the spinning blades of a
propeller, the propelling jet of a
jet engine, or by ejecting hot gases from a
rocket engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...
. Reverse thrust can be generated to aid braking after landing by reversing the pitch of variable-pitch propeller blades, or using a
thrust reverser
Thrust reversal, also called reverse thrust, is the temporary diversion of an aircraft engine's thrust for it to act against the forward travel of the aircraft, providing deceleration. Thrust reverser systems are featured on many jet aircraft ...
on a jet engine.
Rotary wing aircraft
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The Internati ...
use rotors and
thrust vectoring
Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ve ...
V/STOL
A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at a ...
aircraft use propellers or engine thrust to support the weight of the aircraft and to provide forward propulsion.
A
motorboat
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...
propeller generates thrust when it rotates and forces water backwards.
A
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
is propelled forward by a thrust equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction, to the time-rate of momentum change of the
exhaust gas
Exhaust gas or flue gas is emitted as a result of the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, fuel oil, biodiesel blends, or coal. According to the type of engine, it is discharged into the atmosphere through an ...
accelerated from the combustion chamber through the rocket engine nozzle. This is the
exhaust velocity
Specific impulse (usually abbreviated ) is a measure of how efficiently a reaction mass engine (a rocket using propellant or a jet engine using fuel) creates thrust. For engines whose reaction mass is only the fuel they carry, specific impulse is ...
with respect to the rocket, times the time-rate at which the mass is expelled, or in mathematical terms:
:
Where T is the thrust generated (force),
is the rate of change of mass with respect to time (mass flow rate of exhaust), and v is the velocity of the exhaust gases measured relative to the rocket.
For vertical launch of a rocket the initial thrust at
liftoff
Liftoff, lift-off, or lift off may refer to:
Technology
* Lift-off (microtechnology), a fabrication technique
* Flame lift-off, a separation of flame from burner device
* Takeoff, the first moment of flight of an aerospace vehicle
* Reduction o ...
must be more than the weight.
Each of the three
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
Main Engines could produce a thrust of 1.8
meganewton
The newton (symbol: N) is the unit of force in the International System of Units (SI). It is defined as 1 kg⋅m/s, the force which gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 metre per second per second. It is named after Isaac Newton in r ...
, and each of the Space Shuttle's two
Solid Rocket Boosters
A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a large solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and space shuttle, have used SRBs to giv ...
, together 29.4 MN.
By contrast, the
simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) has 24 thrusters of each.
In the air-breathing category, the AMT-USA AT-180 jet engine developed for
radio-controlled aircraft
A radio-controlled aircraft (often called RC aircraft or RC plane) is a small flying machine that is controlled remotely by an operator on the ground using a hand-held radio transmitter. The transmitter continuously communicates with a receiver ...
produce 90 N (20
lbf
The pound of force or pound-force (symbol: lbf, sometimes lbf,) is a unit of force used in some systems of measurement, including English Engineering units and the foot–pound–second system.
Pound-force should not be confused with pound-m ...
) of thrust. The
GE90
The General Electric GE90 is a family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines built by GE Aviation for the Boeing 777, with thrust ratings from . It entered service with British Airways in November 1995. It is one of three options for the 777 ...
-115B engine fitted on the
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet.
The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...
-300ER, recognized by the
Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's Most Powerful Commercial Jet Engine," has a thrust of 569 kN (127,900 lbf) until it was surpassed by the
GE9X, fitted on the upcoming
Boeing 777X
The Boeing 777X is the latest series of the long-range, wide-body, twin-engine jetliners in the Boeing 777 family from Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777X features new GE9X engines, new composite wings with folding wingtips, greater cabin w ...
, at 609 kN (134,300 lbf).
Concepts
Thrust to power
The power needed to generate thrust and the force of the thrust can be related in a
non-linear way. In general,
. The proportionality constant varies, and can be solved for a uniform flow, where
is the incoming air velocity,
is the velocity at the actuator disc, and
is the final exit velocity:
:
:
:
Solving for the velocity at the disc,
, we then have:
:
When incoming air is accelerated from a standstill – for example when hovering – then
, and we can find:
:
From here we can see the
relationship, finding:
:
The inverse of the proportionality constant, the "efficiency" of an otherwise-perfect thruster, is proportional to the area of the cross section of the propelled volume of fluid (
) and the density of the fluid (
). This helps to explain why moving through water is easier and why aircraft have much larger propellers than watercraft.
Thrust to propulsive power
A very common question is how to compare the thrust rating of a jet engine with the power rating of a piston engine. Such comparison is difficult, as these quantities are not equivalent. A piston engine does not move the aircraft by itself (the propeller does that), so piston engines are usually rated by how much power they deliver to the propeller. Except for changes in temperature and air pressure, this quantity depends basically on the throttle setting.
A jet engine has no propeller, so the propulsive power of a jet engine is determined from its thrust as follows. Power is the force (F) it takes to move something over some distance (d) divided by the time (t) it takes to move that distance:
:
In case of a rocket or a jet aircraft, the force is exactly the thrust (T) produced by the engine. If the rocket or aircraft is moving at about a constant speed, then distance divided by time is just speed, so power is thrust times speed:
:
This formula looks very surprising, but it is correct: the ''propulsive power'' (or ''power available'' ) of a jet engine increases with its speed. If the speed is zero, then the propulsive power is zero. If a jet aircraft is at full throttle but attached to a static test stand, then the jet engine produces no propulsive power, however thrust is still produced. The combination
piston engine–propeller also has a propulsive power with exactly the same formula, and it will also be zero at zero speed – but that is for the engine–propeller set. The engine alone will continue to produce its rated power at a constant rate, whether the aircraft is moving or not.
Now, imagine the strong chain is broken, and the jet and the piston aircraft start to move. At low speeds:
The piston engine will have constant 100% power, and the propeller's thrust will vary with speed
The jet engine will have constant 100% thrust, and the engine's power will vary with speed
Excess thrust
If a powered aircraft is generating thrust T and experiencing
drag D, the difference between the two, T − D, is termed the excess thrust. The instantaneous performance of the aircraft is mostly dependent on the excess thrust.
Excess thrust is a
vector
Vector most often refers to:
*Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
*Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
Vector may also refer to:
Mathematic ...
and is determined as the vector difference between the thrust vector and the drag vector.
Thrust axis
The thrust axis for an airplane is the
line of action
In physics, the line of action (also called line of application) of a force ''(F)'' is a geometric representation of how the force is applied. It is the line through the point at which the force is applied in the same direction as the vector ...
of the total thrust at any instant. It depends on the location, number, and characteristics of the jet engines or propellers. It usually differs from the drag axis. If so, the distance between the thrust axis and the drag axis will cause a
moment that must be resisted by a change in the aerodynamic force on the horizontal stabiliser. Notably, the
Boeing 737 MAX
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with ...
, with larger, lower-slung engines than previous 737 models, had a greater distance between the thrust axis and the drag axis, causing the nose to rise up in some flight regimes, necessitating a pitch-control system,
MCAS. Early versions of MCAS malfunctioned in flight with catastrophic consequences, leading to the
deaths of over 300 people in 2018 and 2019.
See also
*
Aerodynamic force
In fluid mechanics, an aerodynamic force is a force exerted on a body by the air (or other gas) in which the body is immersed, and is due to the relative motion between the body and the gas.
Force
There are two causes of aerodynamic force:
...
*
Astern propulsion
Astern propulsion (as applied to a ship) is a maneuver in which a ship's propelling mechanism is used to develop thrust in a retrograde direction. Astern propulsion does not necessarily imply the ship is moving astern (''in reverse''); astern ...
*
Gas turbine engine thrust The familiar study of jet aircraft treats jet thrust with a "black box" description which only looks at what goes into the jet engine, air and fuel, and what comes out, exhaust gas and an unbalanced force. This force, called thrust, is the sum of th ...
*
Gimballed thrust
Gimbaled thrust is the system of thrust vectoring used in most rockets, including the Space Shuttle, the Saturn V lunar rockets, and the Falcon 9.
Operation
In a gimbaled thrust system, the engine or just the exhaust nozzle of the rocket c ...
, most common in modern rockets
*
Pound of thrust
The pound of force or pound-force (symbol: lbf, sometimes lbf,) is a Units of measurement, unit of force used in some System of measurement, systems of measurement, including English Engineering units and the foot–pound–second system.
Pou ...
(same as
pound (force)
The pound of force or pound-force (symbol: lbf, sometimes lbf,) is a unit of force used in some systems of measurement, including English Engineering units and the foot–pound–second system.
Pound-force should not be confused with pound-m ...
)
*
Stream thrust averaging In fluid dynamics, stream thrust averaging is a process used to convert three-dimensional flow through a duct into one-dimensional uniform flow. It makes the assumptions that the flow is mixed adiabatically and without friction. However, due to t ...
*
Thrust-to-weight ratio
Thrust-to-weight ratio is a dimensionless ratio of thrust to weight of a rocket, jet engine, propeller engine, or a vehicle propelled by such an engine that is an indicator of the performance of the engine or vehicle.
The instantaneous thrust-to- ...
*
Thrust vectoring
Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ve ...
*
Thrust reversal
Thrust reversal, also called reverse thrust, is the temporary diversion of an aircraft engine's thrust for it to act against the forward travel of the aircraft, providing deceleration. Thrust reverser systems are featured on many jet aircraft t ...
*
Tractive effort
As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion.
In railway engineering, the term t ...
References
{{Authority control
Aerodynamics
Force
Temporal rates