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:
“What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“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)
“I fly in dreams, I know it is my privilege, I do not recall a single situation in dreams when I was unable to fly. To execute every sort of curve and angle with a light impulse, a flying mathematics—that is so distinct a happiness that it has permanently suffused my basic sense of happiness.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)