Quote:
Originally Posted by hellphish
Someone told me that these planes are so light they they barely work off bernuli effect at all. Is that true?
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You've hit a hotly debated topic.
Some claim airplanes fly purely because of bernuli's style lift. Some claim they fly because of other lift created by bernuli's principle. Some state Angle of Attack. Others claim it's none of the above, and the rest claim a certain amount of all of the above.
I've heard the figure, 5% of a typical cessna's lift is created from bernuli's style lift. Seems right, as the below web page says a cessna would have to fly at 400mph if it were purely bernuli's lift.
I like the following web page myself:
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/AERO/airflylvl3.htm
That's how I rationalize it. The airplane in this video is big (heavy) enough that it uses it's wing basically like a full scale plane does. When you get down to very small airplanes, like what we fly indoors, in the 6-10oz range, a 'flat plate' wing is more efficient than having a curved 'airfoil'. At this point, I would believe that angle of attack is pretty much the only factor in lift.