A flying buttress is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with Gothic church architecture. The purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards (which may arise from stone vaulted ceilings or from wind-loading on roofs) by redirecting them to the ground. The characteristic of a flying buttress is that the buttress is not in contact with the wall all the way to the ground; so that the lateral forces are transmitted across an intervening space. Flying buttress systems have two key components - a massive vertical masonry block (the buttress) on the outside of the building and a segmental or quadrant arch bridging the gap between that buttress and the wall (the 'flyer').
Read more about Flying Buttress: History, Construction, Remedial
Famous quotes containing the word flying:
“Yknow plenty of people, in their right mind, thought they saw things that didnt exist, yknow, like flying saucers. The light was just right, and the angle and the imagination. Oh boy, if thats what it is, then this is just an ordinary night. You and I are going to go home and go to sleep and tomorrow when we get up that suns gonna shine. Just like yesterday. Good ol yesterday.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Steve Andrews (Steven McQueen)