Ask an Explainer

Techincally, there is only one way for the aircraft to remain hanging motionless in the air: if weight and lift cancel each other out perfectly, and at the same time thrust and drag cancel each other out too. But this is incredibly rare.

To stay in the air and sustain its flight, an aircraft needs to be moving forward. Since lift is produced when the wing forces the air above to speed up, the wings needs to be moving through the air, gathering speed, to keep producing lift. If the plane stopped flying forward, it could not produce lift, an thus could not stay up, unlike the helicopter which uses a propeller to stay airborn.