Elliptic Orbit - Flight Path Angle

Flight Path Angle

The flight path angle is the angle between the orbiting body's velocity vector (= the vector tangent to the instantaneous orbit) and the local horizontal. Under standard assumptions the flight path angle satisfies the equation:

where:

  • is the specific relative angular momentum of the orbit,
  • is orbital speed of orbiting body,
  • is radial distance of orbiting body from central body,
  • is the flight path angle

Read more about this topic:  Elliptic Orbit

Famous quotes containing the words flight, path and/or angle:

    The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.
    Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)

    To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)

    The inhabitants of earth behold commonly but the dark and shadowy under side of heaven’s pavement; it is only when seen at a favorable angle in the horizon, morning or evening, that some faint streaks of the rich lining of the clouds are revealed.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)