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Re: Airfoil lift, new article



William Beaty wrote:
See the message below. Can you see the flaw in Mr. Scarfe's diagram and
arguments? It is two-dimensional! In 2D, a wing can push on the distant
ground instantly, since the air cannot escape in a direction out of (or
into) the plane of the diagram. Wing pushes down on air, air pushes down
on Earth, Earth doesn't move. Earth pushes up on air, air pushes up on
wing, wing levitates without having to eject any KG of air downwards.
Flight by "ground effect," with the altitude made irrelevant

I won't pretend that I could follow the quoted message, but isn't this
treating the air as an incompressible fluid? In that case, the pressure
argument would be in deep kimchee too.

--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UC San Diego, Chemistry