Originally Posted by
PearlPilot
To say that the wind traveling on the top surface of the wing has to travel a longer distance than the bottom surface, and therefore it needs to "speed up" to "catch up" to the wind flowing the bottom part of the wing, just feels weird.
That's because it's not quite correct, a particle doesn't need to "catch up" to any other particle. But if you picture a wing in a tank of water a foot below the surface, and then move it forward, the water above the wing is "constricted" at the top of the curvature/camber, and therefore must travel faster at that point, to have the same amount of water traveling at the LE and TE. That means low pressure. And yes, submarines have wings too.
Engineers hate it when you talk about newtonian lift and upwash/downwash. I think upwash and downwash patterns can make controls further back more or less effective, but it's not a "lifting mechanism" IMO, at the least it would mean the TE of our wings would have to be the strongest part, as that's where all the particles are "thrown" from?