The plane truth: Scientist reveals how wings really work [View all]

[dipsydoodle]

The classic explanation of how a wing generates enough lift to keep a plane or a bird in the air is wrong, according to a Cambridge University physicist.

Many textbooks and aircraft manuals say that a wing produces lift because air travelling over the curved topside of a wing has to travel further than wind flowing around the flat underside and so has to travel faster to keep up, generating lift. But this standard explanation has been shown to be wrong by a simple experiment where a wing is placed in an air tunnel with jets of smoke flowing over the upper and lower surfaces, said Professor Holger Babinsky.

"A wing lifts when the air pressure above it is lowered. It's often said this happens because the airflow moving over the top, curved surface has a longer distance to travel and needs to go faster to have the same transit time as the air travelling along the lower, flat surface," he said.

"But this is wrong," said Professor Babinsky. "In the worst case, [this explanation] can lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of aerodynamics.".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-plane-truth-scientist-reveals-how-wings-really-work-6294130.html