During approach and landing, one main function of flaps is to

• A. Increase the angle of descent without increasing airspeed
• B. Increase airspeed while maintaining descent angle
• C. Decrease lift and drag
• D. Reduce wing incidence

Answer: (A)

Flaps primarily increase the wing’s camber and lift coefficient at lower speeds, while also adding drag. This lets you fly slower without stalling and, because of the extra drag, you can descend at a steeper angle without increasing airspeed. In practice, extending flaps during approach and landing makes a steeper, controllable descent path at a safe approach speed. They don’t raise airspeed, they don’t reduce lift and drag, and they don’t change the wing’s fixed incidence angle—the effect is to improve lift at low speed and increase drag to help control the descent.