Understanding Aerodynamic Lift

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Humanity has long been obsessed with heavier-than-air flight, and to this day it remains a topic that is shrouded in a bit of mystery. In this video we take a detailed look at lift, starting with how it is linked with the pressure distribution around airfoils. We also cover a few different explanations of lift, including the Bernoulli Principle and Newton’s Third Law explanations. Circulation is a key aspect of lift that it is important to grasp to develop a more complete understanding of lift so that’s covered too, as is the Kutta condition. Finally we explore how the lift force varies with the angle of attack of the airfoil (which explains why aerobatic aircraft use symmetrical airfoils), and how stalling can result in a dangerous loss of lift.

If you’d like to read more about lift I highly recommend the textbooks Introduction to Flight and Fundamentals of Aerodynamics by John D. Anderson Jr. The paper "Babinsky’s Demonstration: The Theory of Flight and Its Historical Background" published by J. A. D. Ackroyd in the Journal of Aeronautical History also provides some interesting history around theories of lift.

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The Efficient Engineer is a channel aimed at mechanical and civil engineers. The mission is to simplify engineering concepts, one video at a time!

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