The title is the common explanation of flight: the air is split at the front of the wing, and most go faster over the curved top, and be less dense on the top, to meet the air going underneath the wing.
This is wrong. I knew that, but I still repeat this story because I’m just not fully cognizant of the real story of lift.
Here is a very good explanation of how lift works, and the light bulb moment for me was Figure 10, showing how a single wing acts like a downwardly angled air scoop.
Perhaps we should be teaching boys who want to wear homemade wings to strap a piece of sheet metal ductwork, open in front and back, to their arms before they start their take-off run!
This also goes a long way towards answering for me how Air France Flight 447 stalled at high altitude and relatively high velocity: when they tried to gain altitude as a solution to their problems they were reducing the cross-sectional area of their scoop … reducing lift and causing the stall.
Stick your hand out the window when driving at speed and even your hand will get lift. So its nothing to do with a finely shaped wing.
Posted by: SadButMadLad | January 20, 2013 at 04:24 PM
Sadbutmad beat me to it. Still doesn't explain how a biplane, or a Rallye airplane can fly Upsy-daisy. Been there, done that.
Let's hope science will eventually yield a better explanation than either SadButMad or Bernoulli.
Posted by: jim` | January 20, 2013 at 05:08 PM
SadButMadLad:
I'm not so sure about the hand story because of the curved and flexible shape of a hand.
Will mount wing on my own arm to see if I can get the car off the ground, and report back later ;)
Posted by: David Tufte | January 20, 2013 at 07:06 PM
jim`:
Turn your monitor upside down, and you'll see that the above argument works for the wing being in either position. ;)
You wouldn't get as much lift if you were upside down, but you'd get some ... and I suspect you could get 100% if you were also gaining altitude (to improve your angle of attack).
Posted by: David Tufte | January 20, 2013 at 07:08 PM