Why aircraft want to flare?

Question

Why aircraft want to flare?

Answer 1

The "flare" is pilot instigated at the time the decision is made to land the aircraft versus make a "go - a - round.  Both airplanes (fixed wing aircraft) and helicopters (rotery wing) aircraft) are "flared" at the point just seconds before touch down.  You could look at the "flare" as the closest thing a pilot has "to putting on the breaks while in the air" seconds before the wheels touch the ground.  

In airplanes, forward airspeed is what creates flight. On take off, pilots do the same thing a race car driver does when he/she gets that green light - they "gun" that engine for all its worth - to get maximum speed in the quickest, shortest amount of time possible.  They need this speed to create the wind foil, and thus lift over the aircrafts winds.

On landing however, the pilot must maintain a "safe" airspeed all the way to the ground... these babies don't really coast very well at low speeds.  If the minimum safe airspeed is not maintained, the plane would "drop" (and this would be extremely embassasing to say the least, and could in fact be fatal.  Flying a plane to the ground and actually touching ground with the wheels while maintaining airspeed, would render the plane out of control - as steering the plane on the ground is down with the rudder pedals (steered by the feet) not with the wheel on the yoke (or joy stick) you see in the movies - that wheel controls the flaps and ailerons. Maintaining airspeed at touchdown, would make the craft too light to control on the ground... and thus it would have just as much tendancy to fly as it would to roll down the runway.

So the "flare" is caused by the pilot... it puts the aircraft in a slight nose up position to cause it to loose airspeed, and thus loose lift... so that when it touches ground - it does not "bounce" and in fact stays on the ground.  So the "flare" acts to arrest the descent rate just before touch down to minimize airspeed and soften the landing.

Other than that... there are certain conditions when a plane has a tendancy to flare... but in these conditions, the plane is not being flown properly.