Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, May 26, 2011, 10:05 AM
https://n2v.almanacnews.com/square/print/2011/06/02/flight-night-in-portola-valley-
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Flight Night in Portola Valley
Original post made on Jun 2, 2011
Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, May 26, 2011, 10:05 AM
Comments
Posted by Chris
a resident of another community
on Jun 2, 2011 at 8:14 pm
a resident of another community
on Jun 2, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Actually, a curved wing is not required to create lift.
Try this: while driving your car down the highway, stick your hand out the window, and hold it flat. Rotate it to different angles. At some angles, the wind will want to blow your hand up, at other angles it will blow it down, and at other angles it will blow it backwards. When your hand is being pushed up, you are pushing the wind down.
The wing of a plane is like your hand -- it is moving through the air, pushing some of the air down. The air, in turn, pushes the plane up.
Curved wings happen to be more efficient, just like a curved Prius is more efficient than a pick-up truck. But model planes have very powerful motors, and the fuel (battery power) is cheap -- so we often build inefficient but easy-to-build flat wings than hard-to-build but more efficient curved ones.
If you want to learn more, some references:
An article on lift: Web Link
An article from NASA explaining why the "curved wing" theory is incorrect: Web Link
A funny comic on the subject: Web Link
