What does centrifugal force act against in an aircraft?

Centrifugal force plays a significant role when considering an aircraft's behavior in a turn. When an aircraft is in a banked turn, the lift generated by the wings acts in a vertical direction, while the aircraft is also subject to a horizontal component of lift due to the bank.

As the aircraft turns, centrifugal force, which is the apparent force felt by an object moving in a circular path that pushes it away from the center of the rotation, acts outwardly. This means that the horizontal component of lift must counteract this force to maintain the turn. In a turn, the horizontal lift component helps pull the aircraft into the turn while the centrifugal force attempts to push it outward. Therefore, the correct answer identifies that centrifugal force is opposed by the horizontal component of lift during a turn, maintaining the airplane's flight path.

While the vertical component of lift counters the weight of the aircraft and the direction of airflow around the wing pertains to how lift is created, those factors do not interact directly with centrifugal force in the context of a banked turn.