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:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“The path of social advancement is, and must be, strewn with broken friendships.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“So much symmetry!
Like the pale angle of time
And eternity.
The great shape labored and fell.”
—N. Scott Momaday (b. 1934)