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:
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That if we hold that flight they’ll leave the place,
While those same hundreds mock another day
Because we have made our art of common things ...”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Old and fat, I waddle, gasping, up the beckoning path of lust.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)