> All new airliners of Airbus or Boeing make and all top bizjets, have
> low drag "supercritical wings", with almost flat upper surface and
> curved lower surface (to host wing beam and fuel)!
>
> I have never seen Scientific American explain that wing and why it
> physically create Lift!
A supercritical wing is, by definition, designed to operate in a
compressible flow regime. You can throw Bernoulli out the window for such
wings.
They still generate lift the same way as all other wings; they induce a
circulation in the airflow. They have a "fat" shape to control adverse
transonic effects and prevent shock separation on the upper surface from
occuring too far forward.
As a side benefit, you can fit more fuel in there and use deeper chords,
but
it's not strictly necessary...the 747 doesn't have a supercritical wing
and
does just fine.
Tom.
