The first observers of the Wright brothers' powered flights were astonished to see such ungainly contraptions of wood and cloth carry a man and a heavy engine aloft. But from experiments they had conducted both in the field (with their gliders) and in the lab (with their wind tunnel), the Wrights had become keenly aware of how air passing over a wing creates lift, as well as how the shape of an airfoil determines how effective a wing's lift will be.
In this pair of interactive features, find out how air moving over and under a wing manages to lift a plane into the sky. Also, compare modern airfoil shapes to see, for example, what makes one shape ideal for a fighter jet and another for a cargo plane.
—Rick Groleau
Note: This feature originally appeared in a slightly different form on the
Battle of the X-Planes Web site.
