mthiesen

Yeah, I may have spoke too soon. After reading up on the India's PSLV rocket, it doesn't appear to use any cryogenic fuels or oxidizers. Maybe it could be used as an ICBM...

A typical liquid fueled satellite launching platform would make a very poor ICBM. Liquid fueled rockets can't be stored fully fueled. The fuel is extremely volatile and slowly seeps out of the tanks. This means you have to store it empty, adding a huge launch delay.

ICBMs use much more stable fuels so they can sit in a silo for years on end. This requires totally different engines and fuel tanks.

tldr: You can't just stick a nuke on top of a liquid fueled rocket and use it like an ICBM.

Good point, if the top of the wing diverts air downward via reduced air pressure above the wing, then it would be the higher pressure air underneath (pushing) that creates the lift. Yeah, I can see how terms like "push" and "pull" get pretty confusing.

Wow, Great paper. The most interesting (and counter-intuitive) part for me was that the lift is generated by the top of the wing bending air downwards. In my head I always visualized lift as the bottom of the wing being pushed up, but this paper claims lift is really more like the top of the wing pulling upwards.