Thrust

Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws of motion. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system.

Examples

A fixed-wing aircraft generates forward thrust when air is pushed in the direction opposite to flight. In model aircraft, this can be done in several ways including by the spinning blades of a propeller or a rotating fan pushing air out from the back of a turbine or electric ducted fan. The forward thrust is proportional to the mass of the airstream multiplied by the change in velocity of the airstream.

Helicopters use motor or engine thrust to support the weight of the aircraft and vector sum of this thrust fore and aft to control forward speed.

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