Lift usually means downwash.
However, I think pressure distribution is more important. We were taught in ATPL exams that a third of the lift comes from downwash and 2 thirds from pressure distribution. While this is necessarily a gross simplification, there may be a grain of truth in it.
Certainly the lower surface accounts for more lift than upper surface only theories would have you believe.
I think what I am seeing with no downwash lift is purely the pressure distribution, and with flat plates turning the flow is almost purely downwash created lift. A real wing being a mixture of the two. It still means "lift is produced by deflecting the air downward" is no the right way to describe lift.
Last edited by Jetstream Rider; 28th June 2008 at 11:11.