PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Lift %, Upper/lower wing sections
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Old 29th Jun 2022, 11:10
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Uplinker
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: UK
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I have always been confused about this. At flight school we were told that 2/3rds of a wing's lift came from the top surface 'sucking' the wing upwards - owing to the air speeding up over the top lowering its pressure relative to the air underneath the wing.

But when looking at a propellor in flight school and commenting that since it has a similar profile to a wing, does the propellor mostly 'suck' the aircraft along?, I was told oh no, a propellor works by pushing air behind it. And it manifestly does push air behind it.

And more recently I have seen it asserted that an aircraft flies by its wings pushing down the same weight of air as the aircraft weighs, and certainly a helicopter's blades do push air down.

So, which is it, or do wing and propellor do both?
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