How do airplanes actually fly? - Raymond Adkins

By 1917, Albert Einstein had explained the relationship between space and time.

But, that year, he designed a flawed airplane wing.

His attempt was based on an incomplete theory of flight.

Indeed, insufficient and inaccurate explanations still circulate today.

So, where did Einstein go wrong?

And how do planes fly?

Though we don’t always think of it this way, air is a fluid medium—

it’s just less dense than liquids like water.

Things that are lighter than air are buoyant within it,

while heavier objects require an upward force, called lift, to stay aloft.

For planes, this force is mostly generated by the wings.

One especially pervasive false description of lift

is the “Longer Path” or “Equal Transit Time” explanation.

It states that air molecules traveling over the top of a curved wing

cover a longer distance than those traveling underneath.

For the air molecules above to reach the wing’s trailing edge

in the same instance as those that split off and went below,