Question

What is a flying buttress?

Answer 1

Like few other innovations in history, the flying buttress made Gothic architecture possible. Specifically, the buttress, or support from the side, a building's roof while having a part of the actual buttress open to the ground, hence the term 'flying.

Answer 2

The flying buttress is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall outwards, which are forces that arise from vaulted ceilings of stone and from wind-loading on roofs