Re:Why we don’t understand heavier-than-air flight
by boublepop on Sunday June 27, 2021 @07:38AM
(#27650725)
That is sadly literally how it is explained both in classes and in textbooks. It’s incorrect but it’s how it’s taught which is the root of a lot of misconceptions and why this “explanation” which is not correct keeps living on.
That's not how the Bernoulli effect explains the pressure differential. The bernoulli explanation is that air builds up in front of the airfoil, creating a high pressure region, while there is a low pressure region created in the wake of the wing. This pressure differential forces accelerates air over the wing. For an asymmetric airfoil, more of this flow is over the top than the bottom, so the airflow over the top is faster, and thus lower pressure, than the airflow under the wing.
The "equal time" thing is a pop-science misunderstanding.