Let's Learn English! Topic: Flight! 🪂✈️🐦(Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this

English lesson about flight.

Flight refers to flying

birds, airplanes, the things that

are in the air above us.

I always wonder, what was it like

thousands of years ago

when humans looked up and they saw

birds flying in the air and they

dreamt of being able to fly?

In this lesson, we'll

talk about flight.

We'll talk about everything

that flies in the air.

We'll talk about birds, we'll

talk about airplanes, we'll

talk about helicopters, all

of the things that fly.

And obviously the things that humans

invented so they could fly as well.

So, once again, welcome to this

English lesson about flight.

To fly.

So let's start with

the verb, the verb to fly.

We use this verb to talk about

everything that is in the air.

Airplane will fly, a bird

will fly, a bat will fly,

a helicopter will fly.

So when you want to talk about

something that moves through the air

beautifully, something that soars,

something that glides, something, we

have a few other verbs as well.

The general verb and the most correct

verb to use is the verb to fly.

And you can also use this verb to

talk about what you're going to do.

So this airplane is flying,

and you could say, I am going

to fly to Paris next week.

So the verb, the most common

verb, and the best verb to use

is the verb to fly

when you're talking about birds

and airplanes and other things.

And then we have the word flight.

So flight simply refers

to the same thing.

And you can use sentences

like this, like the bird

was in flight, the bird.

These people are in flight right now.

So flight refers to, again,

everything that can do what

humans can't do on their own.

Birds, bats.

Bats are a little scary.

But we have the word flight,

the noun flight,

and what makes flight possible.

So when you need to fly, most

of the time, you need to have wings.

You need to have a wing.

So an airplane will have

a wing on each side.

A bird will have a wing as well.

And the wing is the part of

the airplane or the part of the bird

or the flying squirrel.

By the way, there are

flying squirrels as well.

That allows that thing

or that animal to fly.

There are other ways for things

and animals to fly, but a wing

is probably the most common.

When you see an eagle flying

in the sky, it has two large wings.

When you see an airplane

at the airport, it will have

two large wings and then smaller

wings at the back.

They're not actually called wings

at the back, but you will have two

really large wings on an airplane,

and a bird will have Wings as well.

And why do you need a wing?

So we're getting a little

scientific here.

You need to generate

what we call lift.

This is what allows things

and animals to fly.

The ability to generate lift

means that the wing allows air

to move faster over the top

and slower underneath.

And that creates two different

pockets of pressure.

And my understanding is

the low pressure is what generally

generates the lift.

This is not a science

lesson order to fly.

This is what's actually happening.

Air is going faster over

the top of the wing.

Creating low pressure.

I was going to say creating suction.

That's a different word.

A bit.

And air going under the bottom

of the wing either has the normal

air pressure or high pressure.

So it creates lift and it makes

the object

or the airplane or the bird go up.

Birds do something else

to help generate that list.

Lift.

I'll talk about that

in moment as well.

Then we have other ways to fly.

And that is one way is to have

something that's lighter than air.

So this is a hot air balloon.

It doesn't have wings.

It doesn't use that to generate lift.

Instead, inside the balloon

is something that is

lighter than the air.

That might simply be hot air.

That's why it's called

a hot air balloon.

But it basically has something

inside that allows it

to rise through the air.

In the past, it's.

Instead of hot air, it

has been other things.

Like, I don't.

Sorry, I don't want

to say the other things.

I can't remember what they are.

But if you as a child ever get

a helium balloon, you'll notice

that it floats in the air

because it is lighter than air.

But yes.

Hot air balloon.

Have I ever been

on a hot air balloon ride?

No, I have not.

Would I ever go in a hot air balloon?

I don't know.

I'm scared of heights.

So that would be.

I'll have to say, probably not.

We'll.

We'll see.

I did go ziplining.

So, altitude.

So when something is in the air,

and usually we're talking about

airplanes and helicopters,

when something is in the air, we say

height by using the word altitude.

So if an airplane is 500 meters

above the ground, we would

say its altitude is 500 meters.

Sometimes altitude refers to

meters above sea level.

There's kind of two ways

of measuring it to my understanding.

But basically, altitude would be

the distance that you would

measure from whatever is flying

to the ground or from whatever

is flying to sea level.

The altitude.

Early flying machines.

Let me see where I am

in my lesson Here.

So my understanding is that

there were a lot of different

early flying machines.

But we do always look

at the Wright brothers

in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

I think I might have my facts wrong.

Who built the Wright Brothers

Flyer, which was a powered.

One of the first powered airplanes,

I think the first powered airplane.

But we would call these

early flying machines.

So when you're talking about the

history of flight, when you're

talking about the history of

manned flight, you know, flight

that takes place with a person,

we usually talk about the Wright

brothers.

And I don't know exactly

how they built it.

I do know that they were

excellent bicycle mechanics.

And it had a small,

very low horsepower engine.

But they were able

to fly along the beach.

I often wonder if they flew

along the beach because they

could use the wind to help them,

or so that if they crashed

in the sand, it was soft.

I don't always know the full

details, but if you look at

pictures, you'll see early hot air

balloons, early flying machines,

some that didn't work.

But if you do some research,

it's pretty fun to do.

And we call this aviation.

Sorry, I shouldn't say all of it.

When we talk about human beings

flying using early flying machines

and airplanes, we call it aviation.

So if you know someone who's going

into aviation, they might be

becoming an aviation mechanic,

they might be becoming a pilot.

They are.

They work in the world

of human flight using airplanes

and other flying machines.

We call.

So that is the general term.

We call it aviation.

So a few simple terms.

Aircraft is used to refer to anything

that we built as humans that flies.

Generally, we use this to reply

to refer to airplanes.

So this is an aircraft, and it's

from klm, which is the airline

in the Netherlands.

I tried to represent

a couple countries here.

We also have airplane to specifically

talk about this kind of machine.

So aircraft is a general term

for anything man made that

flies, whereas airplane refers

to this type of machine.

Two wings, engines.

Sometimes it's a passenger airplane,

and sometimes it's a cargo airplane.

And usually in English

we just say plane.

We don't always say airplane.

You can use both, for sure.

You have what's called a glider.

So a glider is a type of aircraft

that has no engine.

So it needs another airplane.

It needs an airplane to tow it

up to a very high height

so that it can glide.

So it has really big wind wings

and no engine, and it will just

slowly glide to the ground.

So not only is glider the name this

machine, it is also the verb we use.

So a glider Will glide.

It's supposed to be very peaceful.

There's no engine noise and you just

kind of use the winds

to kind of glide and slowly

go down and up a little bit too.

If you can catch the wind properly,

then we have a helicopter.

So I think I might have

mentioned this before.

When I was a kid, this is one

of the things was hoping to be able

to do someday not work for the lapd,

But I dreamt of flying a helicopter.

So even though I'm afraid

of heights for some reason,

I thought it was cool.

I liked there were a few TV

shows like Airwolf where the lead

character had a helicopter.

And so it seemed fun to me and.

But I never pursued that.

When you talk about something you

wanted to do that you didn't do,

you say that you didn't pursue it.

And of course we have

pilots and co pilots.

A pilot would be the main person who

flies the plane and the co pilot

would be equally trained and equally

competent to fly the plane as well.

But for really large planes,

you almost always have two pilots.

A pilot, co pilot.

For a few reasons.

One, when everything goes well,

you only need one pilot.

But sometimes things go wrong

and then it's good to have two.

It's also because sometimes a flight

is so long that they can take turns.

You might have a crew of three pilots

where one is sleeping, one is

the pilot and one is the co pilot.

And they'll rotate as they

fly a really long flight.

Because like most humans, we can't

do something for more than seven

or eight hours, which without

becoming a bit tired or fatigued.

So it's good to have a copilot.

And then we have of course,

takeoff and landing.

So takeoff refers to when the plane

is on the ground and then it uses

its engines to go up in the air.

If you're sitting in a passenger

plane, you, you, you get pushed back

in your seat during takeoff

and the plane shakes a little bit.

Here, let me mimic takeoff.

It's like you get pushed back

in your seat and it shakes a little

bit, hopefully not too much.

And then I always like the part

where, you know, the plane's

shaking and it's rumbling a

little bit and you can hear the

wheels on the tarmac and then

all of a sudden it gets a

little quieter.

That's my favourite part.

Just as the plane, you know, you sink

in your seat a little bit

and the plane goes up and then it

gets just a little bit quieter.

So yes, so you have

the plane going down the Runway.

It's a little bit loud and shaky,

and then it quiets down a little

bit, and then you are in the air.

Landing, I don't like as much.

I'm always worried

when the airplane is landing because

you just keep going down.

And sometimes it's not smooth.

Sometimes you're like.

You can feel the plane kind of.

And then all of a sudden you

hear the wheels hit, and then

the plane levels out.

So that is the landing.

I don't have a picture

of it, but a little while ago

at Toronto Airport, an airplane

flipped upside down.

It landed and then it

flipped upside down.

Yeah, that was.

It was actually, I think it was

just before one of my kids was

flying home from university.

So I was like, I hope their plane

doesn't do the same thing.

So you have departures and arrivals.

So when you go to the airport.

I didn't want to make this lesson

about air travel,

but I felt like I do need

to mention takeoff and landing.

And when you go to the airport to go

somewhere, you find the departures

area that you can depart.

And then when you land at an airport,

people can meet you at

the arrivals section of the airport.

So I've been to both.

I've been to the departures section

to drop people off

and wave goodbye, and I've been

to the arrivals section

to pick someone up from the airport.

So you drop people off at

the departures part of the terminal,

and they come in at the arrivals

part of the terminal.

Like air travel, it's pretty cool.

I think it's pretty.

It's one of the coolest things

that humans have invented.

Let's switch gears a little bit,

and let's talk about flying animals.

So I didn't just put birds,

because there are more

than just birds that fly.

But let's talk about

how humans were inspired to fly.

What they were looking

at that made them think, maybe we

can do that someday, too.

So here we go.

A bird.

So the other day, in my short English

lesson, I was out videotaping

and I saw a red winged blackbird.

So this is the second reason

why I thought I should

do a lesson on flight.

I was walking along and I

saw the bird on a fence.

I think it's actually in the video.

If you look in the.

In the chat, I think Nightbot is

sharing that every once in a while,

but it was a really cool bird.

And then it flew away.

Birds fly.

It's amazing.

It must have seemed amazing, almost

like magic to ancient people.

They probably looked up and thought,

how Is that happening?

How is that bird flying?

But a bird would be the most

common type of animal flies.

And a bird does something

a little different.

A bird will flap, flap its wings.

So an airplane has rigid wings,

and it generates lift

by moving through the air.

A bird has wings that it can flap.

This is the verb we use

as the bird flaps its wings

that will generate wings.

So that's how a bird is able to fly.

And also because a bird has

feathers, the feathers

very much help the bird to fly.

Like a bird wing can change

shape, right?

It has all these feathers,

and as it flies, it can.

It can fold its wings in, and then

it can spread them out, and it can

do different things with its wings,

its feathers, so that it can fly.

We often find feathers

on our farm because we have geese,

and there are all kinds of birds

that fly and live on our farm.

So every once in a while,

you will find a feather,

and it's very, very cool.

So there's a kind of bird that's

called a flightless bird.

So even though this lesson is

about flight, I thought

I should mention birds, like

penguins, are flightless.

We have chickens.

They can sort of fly

like they're kind of in between.

Our chickens can fly enough

sometimes to.

If they can climb on their

chicken coop, they can fly over

the fence just like they can't fly

for a hundred meters,

but they can fly two meters.

But some birds can't fly at all.

Like an ostrich is a flightless bird.

Penguin is a flightless bird.

Basically we describe them by saying

that they can't do this activity.

The bird is flightless.

And then birds, sometimes, especially

pet birds, have their wings clipped.

And I wanted to talk about this

because when a bird has its

wings clipped, then it can't fly.

And we use this phrase

to talk about people as well.

So let's say that.

Let's say there's a race car driver,

and he's told that he can't

drive the car for three weeks

because he did something wrong.

You might say he had

his wings clipped.

Let's say that someone was

prevented from doing

an activity they like to do.

We would say they have

their wings clipped.

A.

A good example of this

would be a teenager.

If a teenager does something bad,

the parents say, you're not allowed

to go out for two weeks.

You're grounded.

We would say they have

their wings clipped.

So I'm not sure about all the details

of this or whether it's even kind

to do this, but when

a bird has Its wings clipped,

it means it cannot fly.

And then a bird will perch.

So we have the verb to flap.

A bird will flap its wings.

When a bird sits on a branch or

a twig or even in its cage, it will

have something called a perch.

Or even if the bird is on your

arm, like if you were training

falcons or something like that,

the bird will perch.

So when a bird uses its feet

to grab something to stay in one

spot, we use the verb to perch.

This bird has decided to perch

on this small bird.

So that simply means the bird is

going to sit on that branch.

A flying squirrel.

So I wanted to put this one in here

because I wanted to make sure you

knew that other animals can fly.

And also because the word squirrel

is very hard

for English learners to pronounce.

This is a flying squirrel.

Not every squirrel can fly.

The squirrels that live

by me, the squirrels that live

on my farm in the trees, fly.

But there are places in the world

where there are flying squirrels.

I would actually say this.

They're more like gliding squirrels.

So they put out their body.

I wouldn't call them wings.

So that they can float

down to the ground.

Should I say the word

squirrel a few more times?

This is a flying squirrel.

It can climb up a tree,

and then it can jump off the tree

and kind of fly to the ground.

A flying squirrel.

And there's also bats.

We do have bats on our property.

We like bats.

Bats come out at night, and they

fly around and they eat insects.

So the more bats you have

on your property, the less insects,

like mosquitoes, you will have.

So the more bats, the better.

Even though I find bats

a little bit creepy.

They're.

Yeah, the flying squirrel is cute.

The bat is a little scary.

In my mind, I'm not.

Yeah, I like bats.

I don't like seeing the bats.

I like it when they do their work

at night, when I can't see

them eating all of the insects.

And then, of course, let's talk

about a few human

activities related to flight.

So we have things like skydiving.

Skydiving is when you jump out of

a plane, something I will never do.

And then you open your parachute

and you slowly float to the ground.

So again, you jump out of the plane.

Your rip cord might automatically

be pulled when you jump.

Or you might actually go

in free fall for a while.

That's where you just fall through

the sky until the altitude says

whatever you want it to be.

And then you would pull your

ripcord and your parachute

open up, and then you would

slowly float to the ground.

Why would Bob not go skydiving?

Number one, I'm afraid of heights.

Number two, I'm afraid

the parachute won't open.

I have two fears.

One, I don't want to be

that high in the sky.

Two, I'm afraid the parachute

will not open.

Or we sometimes say deploy.

The parachute might not deploy.

That's just frightening for me.

We also have hang gliding.

I think this has been replaced a bit

with Paris paragliding, maybe.

I'm not sure exactly what is

more popular right now, but

hang gliding is when you have a

large kite like contraption

I'll call it, so that you can

kind of glide and float through

the air.

So you would go hang gliding

and enjoy the slow

gliding descent to the ground.

We also have something

called a jetpack.

I think this is called

a hydro jetpack.

There's also jet packs

where you have jet engines.

And basically it's like a backpack.

A backpack is a bag you use

when you go to school and you

put your books in it.

A jetpack looks the same

except it has jet engines.

Or in this case, it

has water nozzles.

Shoot high pressure water so that

you can pretend to fly or fly.

I mean, you're not pretending,

you're actually doing

it so that you can fly.

I would try this, I think,

although I wonder how.

You probably have to be quite strong

to use a jetpack

and then paragliding.

So paragliding is kind

of a combination you can see between

skydiving, hang gliding or

one of those other things.

So basically you are flying through

the air on this type of wing

and kind of gliding to the ground.

I'm not an expert on paragliding,

but it's also something

I'm never going to try.

I did have a slide for hot air

balloon, but it's not in the folder.

So this is the.

That was the last slide.

I, I was thinking hot air balloon

is the last slide, but that's it,

that's the end of the lesson.