>Unfortunately, there IS no simple explanation of the effect of airfoil
>camber without getting into advanced fluid mechanics and differential
>equations. I liked the explanation of a former sci.aero moderator,
>Mary Shafer- action of the "lift daemons". It is the only thing
>understandable without getting really into the nitty-gritty of fluid
>dynamics.
I'm not convinced. I like the humor in "lift-demon" theory,
but in the end it's a cop-out - just throwing up our hands
and saying it's too complex to explain. Simpler
explanations are possible, but they are even harder than
hard mathematical explanations.
>
>This is true for any situation where viscous flow dominates. At low
>enough air density where the mean free path becomes a sizeable ****tion
>of the airfoil chord, things change, momentum flow can give a good
>approximation of lift. But no airplanes except the shuttle fly in this
>regime.
--
The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which
is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any
other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the
divine.
Plato, 'Phaedrus.'
