A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a force on it.

Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow direction. If the fluid is air, the force is called an aerodynamic force.

An airfoil is a streamlined shape that is capable of generating significantly more lift than drag. Nonstreamlined objects such as bluff bodies and flat plates may also generate lift when moving relative to the fluid, but will have a higher drag coefficient dominated by pressure drag.

Newton's laws: lift and the deflection of the flow

Deflection Lift is a reaction force an airfoil deflects the air as it passes the airfoil. !ince the foil must exert a force on the air to change its direction, the air must exert a force of e"ual magnitude but opposite direction on the foil. In the case of an airplane wing, the wing exerts a downward force on the air and the air exerts an upward force on the wing.

#his follows from the second and third of Newton$s laws of motion% The net force on an object is equal to its rate of momentum change, and% To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. #he air changes direction as it passes the airfoil and follows a path that is curved. &henever airflow changes direction, a reaction force is generated opposite to the directional change. Pressure differences Lift may also be described in terms of air pressure% pressure is the normal force per unit area. &herever there is net force there is also a pressure difference, thus deflection'flow turning indicates the presence of a net force and therefore a pressure difference. #he direction of the net force implies that the average pressure on the upper surface of the wing is lower than the average pressure on the underside. &henever a fluid follows a curved path, there is a pressure gradient perpendicular to the flow direction. higher velocities and tighter curvatures create larger pressure differentials and that for straight flow () * +, the pressure difference is -ero.

Angle of attack

#he angle of attac. is the angle between an airfoil and the oncoming air. A symmetrical airfoil will generate -ero lift at -ero angle of attac.. /ut as the angle of attac. increases, the air is deflected through a larger angle and the vertical component of the airstream velocity increases, resulting in more lift. 0or small angles a symmetrical airfoil will generate a lift force roughly proportional to the angle of attac.. As the angle of attac. grows larger, the lift reaches a maximum at some angle1 increasing the angle of attac. beyond this critical angle of attac. causes the air to become turbulent and separate from the wing1 there is less deflection downward so the airfoil generates less lift. #he airfoil is said to be stalled.

Bernoulli's principle: lift, pressure, and speed

0rom /ernoulli$s principle, the pressure on the upper surface where the flow is moving faster is lower than the pressure on the lower surface where it is moving slower. #he pressure difference thus creates a net aerodynamic force, pointing upward and downstream to the flow direction. #he component of the force perpendicular to the free stream is lift1 the component parallel to the free-stream is drag. In conjunction with this force by the air on the airfoil, the airfoil imparts an e"ual-and-opposite force on the surrounding air that creates the downwash, in accordance with Newton$s third law. 2easuring the momentum transferred to the down wash is another way to determine the amount of lift on the airfoil

Lift coefficient
If the lift coefficient for a wing at a specified angle of attac. is .nown (or estimated using a method such as thin airfoil theory,, then the lift produced for specific flow conditions can be determined using the following e"uation

"Popular" explanation based on e ual transit!ti"e

An explanation of lift fre"uently encountered in basic or popular sources is the equal transit-time theory. 3"ual transit-time states that because of the longer path of the upper surface of an airfoil, the air going over the top must go faster in order to catch up with the air flowing around the bottom, i.e. the parcels of air that are divided at the leading edge and travel above and below an airfoil must rejoin when they reach the trailing edge. /ernoulli$s 4rinciple is then cited to conclude that since the air moves faster on the top of the wing the air pressure must be lower. #his pressure difference pushes the wing up. 5owever, the hypothesis of e"ual transit time has no basis in theory and is universally contradicted by experiment. Although it is true that the air moving over the top of a wing generating lift does move faster, there is no re"uirement for e"ual transit time. In fact the air moving over the top of an airfoil generating lift moves much faster than the e"ual transit theory would imply. #he assertion that the air must arrive simultaneously at the trailing edge is sometimes referred to as the 63"ual #ransit-#ime 0allacy6.

Airfoil
An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade (of a propeller, rotor, or turbine, or sail as seen in cross-section. An airfoil-shaped body moved through a fluid produces an aerodynamic force. #he component of this force perpendicular to the direction of motion is called lift. #he component parallel to the direction of motion is called drag. #he lift on an airfoil is primarily the result of its angle of attac. and shape. &hen oriented at a suitable angle, the airfoil deflects the oncoming air, resulting in a force on the airfoil in the direction opposite to the deflection. #his force is .nown as aerodynamic force and can be resolved into two components% Lift and drag.

Any object with an angle of attac. in a moving fluid, such as a flat plate, a building, or the dec. of a bridge, will generate an aerodynamic force (called lift, perpendicular to the flow. Airfoils are more efficient lifting shapes, able to generate more lift (up to a point,, and to generate lift with less drag.

A lift and drag curve obtained in wind tunnel testing is shown on the right. #he curve represents an airfoil with a positive camber so some lift is produced at -ero angle of attac.. &ith increased angle of attac., lift increases in a roughly linear relation, called the slope of the lift curve. At about 78 degrees this airfoil stalls, and lift falls off "uic.ly beyond that. #he drop in lift can be explained by the action of the upper-surface boundary layer, which separates and greatly thic.ens over the upper surface at and past the stall angle. #he thic.ened boundary layer$s displacement thic.ness changes the airfoil$s effective shape, in particular it reduces its effective camber, which modifies the overall flow field so as to reduce the circulation and the lift. #he thic.er boundary layer also causes a large increase in pressure drag, so that the overall drag increases sharply near and past the stall point. Asymmetric airfoils can generate lift at -ero angle of attac., while a symmetric airfoil may better suit fre"uent inverted flight as in an aerobatic airplane.

Airfoil ter"inolog#

* #he suction surface (a...a. upper surface, is generally associated with higher velocity and lower static pressure. * #he pressure surface (a...a. lower surface, has a comparatively higher static pressure than the suction surface. #he pressure gradient between these two surfaces contributes to the lift force generated for a given airfoil. * A .ey characteristic of an airfoil is its chord. &e thus define the following concepts% #he leading edge is the point at the front of the airfoil that has maximum curvature. #he trailing edge is defined similarly as the point of maximum curvature at the rear of the airfoil. #he chord line is a straight line connecting the leading and trailing edges of the airfoil. #he chord length, or simply chord, 9 , is the length of the chord line and is the characteristic dimension of the airfoil section. * #he shape of the airfoil is defined using the following concepts% #he mean camber line is the locus of points midway between the upper and lower surfaces. Its exact shape depends on how the thic.ness is defined1 #he thickness of an airfoil varies along the chord. It may be measured in either of two ways% #hic.ness measured perpendicular to the camber line.#his is sometimes described as the 6American convention6 #hic.ness measured perpendicular to the chord line.#his is sometimes described as the 6/ritish convention6. * #wo .ey parameters to describe an airfoil:s shape are its maximum thickness (expressed as a percentage of the chord,, and the location of the maximum thic.ness point (also expressed as a percentage of the chord,. 0inally, important concepts used to describe the airfoil:s behavior when moving through a fluid are% #he aerodynamic center, which is the chord-wise length about which the pitching moment is independent of the lift coefficient and the angle of attac.. #he center of pressure, which is the chord-wise location about which the pitching moment is -ero.

$hin airfoil theor#

$hin airfoil theor# is a simple theory of airfoils that relates angle of attac. to lift for incompressible, inviscid flows. It was devised by ;erman-American mathematician 2ax 2un. and further refined by /ritish aerodynamicist 5ermann ;lauert and others<77= in the 7>?@s. #he theory ideali-es the flow around an airfoil as two-dimensional flow around a thin airfoil. It can be imagined as addressing an airfoil of -ero thic.ness and infinite wingspan. #hin airfoil theory was particularly notable in its day because it provided a sound theoretical basis for the following important properties of airfoils in two-dimensional flow%<7?=<7A= (7, on a symmetric airfoil, the center of pressure and aerodynamic center lies exactly one "uarter of the chord behind the leading edge (?, on a cambered airfoil, the aerodynamic center lies exactly one "uarter of the chord behind the leading edge (A, the slope of the lift coefficient versus angle of attack line is units per radian As a conse"uence of (A,, the section lift coefficient of a symmetric airfoil of infinite wingspan is%

where 9L is the section lift coefficient, is the angle of attac. in radians, measured relative to the chord line Also as a conse"uence of (A,, the section lift coefficient of a cambered airfoil of infinite wingspan is% 9L@is the section lift coefficient when the angle of attac. is -ero. #hin airfoil theory does not account for the stall of the airfoil, which usually occurs at an angle of attac. between 7@B and 7CB for typical airfoils.