[tromp]

I checked the top hit [1] for googling "how do wings really generate lift" which, being a NASA webpage, instilled some confidence they would have the correct explanation. But alas:

> Airplane wings are shaped to make air move faster over the top of the wing. When air moves faster, the pressure of the air decreases. So the pressure on the top of the wing is less than the pressure on the bottom of the wing. The difference in pressure creates a force on the wing that lifts the wing up into the air.

Then I read [2] which corrects that view:

> “What actually causes lift is introducing a shape into the airflow, which curves the streamlines and introduces pressure changes – lower pressure on the upper surface and higher pressure on the lower surface,” clarified Babinsky, from the Department of Engineering. “This is why a flat surface like a sail is able to cause lift – here the distance on each side is the same but it is slightly curved when it is rigged and so it acts as an aerofoil. In other words, it’s the curvature that creates lift, not the distance.”

This is still not very satisfying, as it fails to show HOW curvature causes lift. Maybe there is no simple explanation...

[1] https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/dynamicso...

[2] https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/how-wings-really-work

[fanf2]

The NASA page does not make the false equal time assumption.

[nandomrumber]

I don’t see how the first and second paragraphs you provided are incongruent.

Aren’t they saying exactly the same thing?

And isn’t that Bernoulli’s Principle?