So full disclosure I personally understand Bernoulli’s principle and understand how a wing works due to it.
Here’ is what I need. My 5 year old son loves planes, and loves watching birds fly. As such he is asking questions of how a bird’s wing works vs how an airplane’s wing works. I can’t seem to simplify down Bernoulli’s to the extent that he can understand how a wing works. So I’m coming to you all for advice.
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Bernoulli isn’t actually a very good way to understand wings. It’s one of those explanations that sounds good but isn’t wildly physically accurate, or at least incomplete, so if anyone thinks about it for too long (like a budding 5 year old airplane enthusiast) they’ll get confused really fast.
Lift happens by pushing air down. Air goes down, wing gets pushed up, just like throwing a baseball on a skateboard. *Anything* that pushes air down generates lift…a brick will fly just fine with a good enough engine. There are flying lawnmowers (happy Youtubing).
A *wing* is specifically designed to push air down *while minimizing drag*. That means you can push enough air down to lift you up without needing a stupidly large engine.
Airplanes push airdown with a wing, and get thrust from their engine.
Birds combined their wings with their engines…they get lift from the wing the same way an airplane does, but they *also* get thrust by flapping. This is why they can glide just fine with their wings still but need to flap to takeoff or climb or stay level.
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