How do wings work

We already have an acceptable explanation for what happens at the bottom part of an airfoil: the oncoming air pushes on the wing both vertically producing lift and horizontally producing drag. The upward push exists in the form of higher pressure below the wing, and this higher pressure is a result of simple Newtonian action and reaction. Things are quite different at the top of the wing, however.

A region of lower pressure exists there that is also part of the aerodynamic lifting force. We know from streamlines that the air above the wing adheres closely to the downward curvature of the airfoil. This is the physical mechanism which forces the parcels to move along the airfoil shape. A slight partial vacuum remains to maintain the parcels in a curved path. This drawing away or pulling down of those air parcels from their neighboring parcels above is what creates the area of lower pressure atop the wing.

But another effect also accompanies this action: the higher airflow speed atop the wing. But as always, when it comes to explaining lift on a nontechnical level, another expert will have another answer. But he is correct in everything else. The problem is that there is no quick and easy explanation. Drela himself concedes that his explanation is unsatisfactory in some ways. So where does that leave us? In effect, right where we started: with John D.

This article was originally published with the title "The Enigma of Aerodynamic Lift" in Scientific American , 2, February How Do Wings Work? Holger Babinsky in Physics Education , Vol. David Bloor. University of Chicago Press, Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics. Doug McLean. Wiley, You Will Never Understand Lift. Peter Garrison in Flying ; June 4, Culick; July Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Our selection of the week's biggest Cambridge research news and features sent directly to your inbox.

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Please read our email privacy notice for details. Postgraduate Why Cambridge? Postgraduate courses How to apply Fees and funding Frequently asked questions. International students Continuing education Executive and professional education Courses in education. Annual reports Equality and diversity Media relations A global university. In , Evagelista Torricelli discovered that air has weight. When experimenting with measuring mercury, he discovered that air put pressure on the mercury.

Francesco Lana used this discovery to begin to plan for an airship in the late s. He drew an airship on paper that used the idea that air has weight. The ship was a hollow sphere which would have the air taken out of it. Once the air was removed, the sphere would have less weight and would be able to float up into the air. Each of four spheres would be attached to a boat-like structure and then the whole machine would float.

The actual design was never tried. Hot air expands and spreads out and it becomes lighter than cool air. When a balloon is full of hot air it rises up because the hot air expands inside the balloon.

When the hot air cools and is let out of the balloon the balloon comes back down. 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.

Here is a simple computer simulation that you can use to explore how wings make lift. Laws of Motion Sir Isaac Newton proposed three laws of motion in These Laws of Motion help to explain how a planes flies. If an object is not moving, it will not start moving by itself. If an object is moving, it will not stop or change direction unless something pushes it.

When an object is pushed in one direction, there is always a resistance of the same size in the opposite direction. How does a plane fly? Let's pretend that our arms are wings. If we place one wing down and one wing up we can use the roll to change the direction of the plane. We are helping to turn the plane by yawing toward one side. Why does it fail sometimes? A plane stalls when it loses lift and begins to fall.

It happens when airspeed is too low or if the wing has too big of an angle measured from the horizontal. In this case, the airflow over the top of the wing stops and the pressure below the wing turns into the normal air pressure, killing the force to hold the plane up in the air. To save the plane, the nose should be pointed downwards to create enough speed and re-establish the low pressure on the top.

In conclusion, wings work with the speed, pressure, and the generated air circulation based on the Bernoulli principle, but not as Bernoulli expects. How planes fly should be explained through how plane wings work. They are the leading element in flying, used for lifting, turning, landing, and controlling the airplane. The pressure, speed, and air circulation formed around them combine to make flying a huge metal object possible. Not all the wings are curved, but the common belief is that they are curved to create pressure difference and, consequently, the lift force.

However, it creates enough pressure difference to create air circulation and other elements that combine and make plane wings work. Only if the wing is stretched from one side of the plane to the other, in a way that the plane is located in the middle, it can fly with one wing.