When I was a youngster, they taught me (probably in some intro to physics type class) that a wing flies because of its airfoil shape. That is, the low pressure of the air moving faster over the top plus the higher pressure on the bottom of the wing (all down to the Bernoulli principle) were the sum total of lift factors on the wing.
This is probably not literally what they taught me, but it's the information I took away: Bernoulli low pressure basically sucks the airplane off the ground. No mention of angles of attack, or deflection adding to lift. I finally read a book which touched on aerodynamics (alas, I've forgotten which one now, possibly Stick and Rudder, but probably not), and it explained in no uncertain terms that the majority of lift comes from the downward deflection of air from the bottom of the wing (in other words, a flat barn door held at the right angle would produce similar lift). The low pressure over the top helps, but it's helping, not doing all the work. The airfoil shape allows the wing to maintain laminar flow at higher angles of attack, mostly.
This finally made it click in my brain. I went through flight training and years of flying without ever making the connection between angle of attack and lift and where the pressure must be doing things. Everyone I've ever mentioned this to (who has any memory of learning this) has had the same misconception that I have: that the airfoil shape is tremendously important and basically produces all the lift.
I realize this seems like a fairly Aeronautics-101 kind of thing, but it was a huge revelation for me. Finally I understand how a symmetrical airfoil can work.
Hopefully I'm just the last to catch on, but I figured I'd post it here for future newbies.
This is probably not literally what they taught me, but it's the information I took away: Bernoulli low pressure basically sucks the airplane off the ground. No mention of angles of attack, or deflection adding to lift. I finally read a book which touched on aerodynamics (alas, I've forgotten which one now, possibly Stick and Rudder, but probably not), and it explained in no uncertain terms that the majority of lift comes from the downward deflection of air from the bottom of the wing (in other words, a flat barn door held at the right angle would produce similar lift). The low pressure over the top helps, but it's helping, not doing all the work. The airfoil shape allows the wing to maintain laminar flow at higher angles of attack, mostly.
This finally made it click in my brain. I went through flight training and years of flying without ever making the connection between angle of attack and lift and where the pressure must be doing things. Everyone I've ever mentioned this to (who has any memory of learning this) has had the same misconception that I have: that the airfoil shape is tremendously important and basically produces all the lift.
I realize this seems like a fairly Aeronautics-101 kind of thing, but it was a huge revelation for me. Finally I understand how a symmetrical airfoil can work.
Hopefully I'm just the last to catch on, but I figured I'd post it here for future newbies.
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