Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: misconceptions (physics of flight)



Hi all, and K. Lee Lerner-
If your navy was anything like my navy (33 years earlier), the
first thing you learned was that, in any circumstance there was "a right
way, a wrong way, and a navy way". It simply wasn't productive to
challenge any part of the pre-flight school curriculum, which was written
by people with degrees in education.
******************************************************************
As part of training as a Naval Aviator I took "flight engineering" co=
urse at Pensacola 1981. The recent discussion regarding misconcepti=
ons of flight took me to my attic stacks of old texts. Sure enough, =
right under the chapter explaining the physics of flight via the Ber=
noulli explanation was a diagram that showed two Oxygen atoms being s=
eparated -- one to flow over the wing and one to flow under the wing.=
The text explained that atmospheric Oxygen was, of course, a diatomi=
c molecule and that the leading edge of the wing separated the atoms =
in the molecule. To further this lunacy, the two oxygen atoms were =
depicted as being attached by springs, apparently to explain that the=
attraction of the Oxygen atoms for one another grew as they were sep=
arated.

Now, we were all a pretty smart group -- in my class several of us ha=
d physics or engineering degrees from top-notch schools. Our instruc=
tor was a GA Tech grad. Alas, none of us challenged these blatant mi=
sconceptions.
********************************************
Regards,
Jack

"I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow. Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time. We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
Autobiography