Final answer:
The best rate of climb and angle of climb in aircraft are primarily determined by airspeed, wing design, excess thrust, and altitude. These factors affect both lift production and engine performance, which are crucial for an airplane's climbing capabilities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The best rate of climb (ROC) and the best angle of climb in an aircraft are influenced by several factors. Airspeed plays a crucial role in both these performance measures, dictating the amount of dynamic pressure over the wings. The wing design, including its shape and aerodynamic efficiency, also significantly impacts an aircraft's climb performance. Excess thrust, which is the available thrust beyond what is required to counteract drag, directly affects the ROC. Lastly, altitude affects the air density and, consequently, the production of lift and engine performance.
In the context of airplane lift, Bernoulli's principle can provide an approximation of the speed required over the wing surface to create ideal lift, though this is complicated by factors such as turbulence and air density variations. At sea level, with an air density of 1.29 kg/m³, an aircraft taking off at 60.0 m/s would need to have a specific speed over the upper surface of the wings to generate the necessary lift based on a rule of thumb of 1000 N per square meter of wing. At cruising altitude, where the air density is one-fourth that at sea level, the airspeed over the wing must be greater to compensate for the lower density to maintain the desired lift.