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Thrusting or Sucking (where's Howard Stern when we need him.)
OK, what is the better explanation to give fledgling students. Should you say the wing deflects/pushes/thrusts the air down to hold the aircraft up ... or should you say the wing/airflow creates a low pressure area that sucks the wing/aircraft upwards. Like many people, Bernoulli was the initial and only explanation I was aware of ... but I now think it is easier and more accurate to explain that a wing/airfolil pushes the air downward. Yes, you do have pressure differences, but that is just an artifact of the process. A Bernoulli based explanation seems to create some inconsistencies. For example, boat and airplane propellers are basically identical devices and differ in engineering specifics primarily because they operate in different fluid mediums. Both employ "fluidfoils" ... and both produce "thrust" ... but wouldn't a Bernoulli view argue that the airplane prop is actually sucking ... and how would you use Bernoulli to explain the thrust produced by the boat prop. What about a Bernoulli view of SR-71 flight ops as it climbs from sea-level to 85,000 feet. thanks, |
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