Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Big jet airliners do not fly by creating a vacuum above their wings. Wings are giant air pumps forcing enormous quantities of air downward. There was an interesting article in Discover magazine on this very issue. John Collier > From: "Douglas Herr" <telyt@earthlink.net> > > Ernest Nitka wrote: > >> why is that airplanes can fly upside down - if >> flying upright caused a vacuum just above the wing >> creating lift then flying upside down should cause >> the wing to move down. This has bothered me for >> near on 2 decades. I get bothered easily >> >> ernie >> > > The airplane's wing is designed to produce lift efficiently at it's normal > angle of attack but it can produce additional lift inefficiently by increasing > the angle of attack (until it stalls). The upside-down airfoil relies on a > high angle of attack to produce lift but does so very inefficiently. > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html