Originally Posted by Cubdriver

Rick, the problem with your calculation is that it does not measure suction as an abstraction from anything else. Bernoulli's equation is a type of energy conservation equation applied only to incompressible (such as slow) and adiabatic (without heat added) flows. It utilizes the laws of principles of conservation of mass and conservation momentum. The latter is a consequence of the well known law, F=ma. Relating the Bernoulli equation to lift is a very tricky problem, but it was solved in about 1905 by the use of vortices as models to develop estimations for circulation around an airfoil. From that we get lift via the Kutta Jakowski theorem (lift= density x freestream velocity x circulation). You may know about JavaFoil to calculate pressure distributions on low-speed airfoils, which uses vortex math and geometry to find the velocities and pressures. Vortex models can be extended to the third dimension to analyze wings. CFD is used when a more accurate estimation of lift is required, and it uses truncated Navier Stokes equations to accounts for things like gravity, body forces, compressibility, boundary layers and viscosity.