I don't pretend to be an engineer, the reason I started this thread was to see if anyone could explain why only one theory of flight is currently taught to pilots. That, and to see what the techies on the site had to say about it. My apologies for being deliberately contentious when I made my first post, but it did elicit the response I was hoping. It's been most interesting. More interesting, perhaps, would be to run a poll, preferably on a different forum (less techies), asking what percentage of pilots have ever heard of more than one theory of flight.
The first I heard of a Newtonian theory was when I went on a performance refresher a few years ago. At the end of the session, the chap teaching us said that he had a few hours before his flight, and was anyone interested in seeing a different explanation of lift to that we were taught when learning to fly. Only two of us stayed (out of about twenty), which perhaps proves that the majority of pilots are not particularly interested in why their aircraft fly. Thanks for your replies.