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Old 28th Aug 2010, 12:31
  #14 (permalink)  
bearfoil
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henra

Your last paragraph describes precisely what I want to convey, with one exception, and in this exception is where not Bernoulli stumbles, but the blunder every (well, more than a few) teachers of Bernoulli make, as I did, until I grokked the flaw. Perhaps due to impatience, where the Jedi draws the little picture for Paduan, an assumption is made that "Lift is here, and the wing lifts the plane". No, it doesn't. Without the tail, it nose dives into the dirt.

I don't start with the little drawing of the complete a/c. As simple as it presents, it almost invariably confuses the learner, as it did me once, causing a resentment against the genius behind the equations, and an irritation with Hank, a classic old school Captain with a now gone A/L.

The "lift is here" and because our wing is suspended in space in a make believe wind tunnel, attached to invisible spars that rotate, and with no taper, a constant chord, and a reasonably exaggerated chord (fat), I don't want anyone to say: "and the airplane climbs and all is right with my world".

I want to hear, "The leading edge will drop, and the ugly lonely wing will dive for the deck.When I hear that, then I "attach" the fuselage, and move on to the next discussion. I firmly believe that one does not teach one to fly.

One teaches one to learn how to fly.

bear