I understand that the wing of the plane creates downforce, lifting the plane into the air, so how do planes fly upside-down? Wouldn’t the wings start pushing the plane down into the ground once flipped?
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Forget the wing shape for a moment and imagine a plane with a sheet of plywood for each wing…
Add a engine to pull the plane forward through the air…
Nose the plane up slightly so the wings are on a slight upward angle… the front of the plywood wing hits the air and the plywood tries to deflect the air downwards. The air doesn’t really want to compress/move that much so the plywood wing (and thus the entire plane) is forced up a little. This is the primary way planes produce lift – plane is moving forward (engine) and the wings are angled slightly up (air deflected downwards).
Next you have the engine exhaust. If the engine is pointing slightly up then the air blast out the back of the engine is pushing the plane up slightly like how a fighter jet can go almost straight up. The effect isn’t nearly as much as the wing angle on a normal plane but it adds to the lift.
Finally you add the familiar wing shape and you optimize it really well you can add maybe 3-5% more lift.
Flying upside down…
If the wing shape was adding 3% lift and you fly upside down up you have lost your 3% benefit and it is now a 3% loss.
But that doesn’t matter… the lift is coming from the wings being on a slight angle deflecting the air downwards. As long as you the engine can pull you forward with the wings at the angle needed to maintain or climb you are good. Remember you control the wing angle by nosing up or nosing down.
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