The discussion revolves around understanding Bernoulli's principle and its application to how an aerofoil develops lift. Participants explore the mechanics of lift generation, the relationship between air pressure and velocity, and also touch upon related problems such as finding the maximum lift-to-drag ratio using a provided graph.
Participants express confusion regarding the mechanics of lift generation, particularly the relationship between downward airflow and upward lift. There is no consensus on the explanation of these phenomena, and the discussion remains unresolved regarding the maximum lift-to-drag ratio due to insufficient data.
Participants highlight limitations in the provided information, particularly regarding the graph for lift-to-drag ratio analysis, which lacks scale and context for accurate interpretation.
The air doesn't have a net upwards flow. The net acceleration is downwards and the net velocity aft of the trailing edge of a wing is downwards. There's a Newton third law pair of forces, the wing exerts a downwards force onto the air, and the air reacts with an upwards force on the wing and also reacts by accelerating downwards. Assuming this is level flight, gravity keeps the aircraft flying level instead of accelerating upwards.marinepyre said:
There's not sufficient information. The maximium lift to drag ratio occurs where the lines cross, but there's no scale on the drag axis, and there's no information about the weight of the aircraft to compare the drag force against, even if the drag axis had a scale.marinepyre said: