What Do Sharks and Planes Have in Common?

23May,2025

What Do Sharks and Planes Have in Common?

BY : Rhiannon Nevinczenko

Airplanes represent one of mankind’s fantastic feats of engineering, granting ourselves our long-held wish for flight. After thousands of years of different failed contraptions, we eventually finally achieved liftoff. The Wright brothers famously created the first successful airplane. To do this, they had to determine the correct ratio between lift and drag.

Funny enough, sharks have to solve the same problem. Just as planes weigh more than air, sharks weigh more than water. To achieve and maintain “up,” the wing (or fin) shape has to make the fluid (i.e., air or water) flow at different speeds above and below it. So, for example, as a shark swims, its caudal fins (tail) propel it forward, and the water under its pectoral fins (on its chest) moves slower than the water above it. Likewise, as a jet engine propels a plane forward, the air under a plane’s wing moves slower than the air above it. This creates a pressure difference, resulting in upward lift. (Slower air = higher pressure, faster air = lower pressure.)

So, if you’ve ever wondered how those giant, heavy passenger planes stay airborne, or why planes look a bit like sharks, physics has your answer!

Image credits:

Plane photograph by Romuschko via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Shark photograph by Pedro Szekely via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Currencies

Follow Us

Your cart is currently empty.