"Wright1902glider" wrote in message
...

Amen! I say to thee, a wing does NOT fly by pushing air down. Rather,
it creates a difference in airspeed between the air on top of the wing
and the air underneath it (relative to gravity or G-forces) which
creates the difference in air pressure which causes what we call
"lift".

I decided years ago to "stop deciding" and just believe that life comes
from both theories. If you only look at the picture that started this
thread, you will be left with no doubt about classic lift theory, but if you
had spent as many hours as I have at the back end of a glider tow rope, you
would know that the wake of an airplane is strongly deflected (accelerated)
downward. (New airplane pilots learn about wake turbulence from pictures in
books, but glider CFIs must take their students into the real thing on a
daily basis.) Flying a short distance behind a tow plane, I am always
flying in clean air unless I fly considerably *below* the tow plane.

Even though I know better, from inside a glider on tow it sure looks like
an airplane's lift comes from pushing air down.

Vaughn