Alan Baker wrote:
Oh, you should check out what he says in his book:

"The wing develops lift by transferring momentum to the air. Momentum
is mass times velocity. In straight and level flight, the momentum is
transferred toward the earth. This momentum eventually strikes the
earth."

The momentum is transferred toward the earth at essentially the speed of
sound and appears as a rise in static pressure.

.... OR ...

_Your_ contention has *always* been that it is transferred much slower.
In fact you contend that the speed of that transfer decreases at some
unknown rate. By inference, it seems you also appear to contend that the
transfer eventually happens due to a rise in dynamic pressure, not static
pressure.

You appear to continue to treat the problem as a "rocket" problem, which
yields non-physical aspects like holes and voids in the atmosphere above
the aircraft. (Because you've already claimed no air moves upward *until*
the downwash reaches the earth's surface.)

So please help me understand your view of the situation by considering
the following hypothetical case and answering as many of the questions I
ask as you can:

Imagine a toy helicopter in a large room (or even a vertically oriented
denser-than-water submarine in a box fully filled with water):

========================== -- Top
| |
| |
B -- | --------- | -- B
| | |
| (===0 |
| |
... ... (Height of room/box could be large or
| | small, relative to blade width.)
| |
========================== -- Bottom
(Width of room/box could be large or
small, relative to blade width.)

Given a downwash through the blades (depicted by "---------" in the
figure above) of the copter/submarine sufficient to hold the
copter/submarine stationary, can you describe to me roughly how you see
the flow of fluid above the helicopter occuring such that no fluid flows
upward anywhere *through* the plane "B" made by the blades *before* the
first bit of downwash created by the *blades* has reached the bottom of
the room/box?

That is - if the copter/submarine begins moving 1 kg/s of fluid down, do
you see a void immediately forming above the blades?

If not, which direction is the fluid flowing from so as to keep a void
from forming? If so, what keeps fluid from filling that void?

If a void above the blades is avoided by sideways fluid flow, does
that mean you see voids forming along the walls above the blades?

If you see voids forming anywhere, what keeps fluid from filling
them?

Are voids consistent with the assumption of incompressible flow?