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| Bette Midler singing "Wind beneath my wings" |
Actually, it's the wind above my wings that makes me fly.
Air flows faster over the upper surface of the wing, which lowers pressure, and therefore provides lift and enables flight. The mechanics are the same for a airplane wing, a frisbee, a sail, a swinging cricket ball or an eagle's wing. Similarly, the spoiler blades at the back of F1 racing cars are designed so the wind passes beneath the wings. This pulls the car down towards the tarmac, and provides stability.
This science is complex enough to provide many engineers with a lifetime of work, but is neither new nor controversial. It follows from Bernoulli's principle, which I was taught in 8th class by Kanaka Eshwaran-Miss (aka Kinetic Energy-miss).
So why does Bette Midler keep showing up on Muzak tracks around the world singing:
"I can fly higher than an eagle,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings"?
Wrong! The wind above her wings makes her fly high. The wind beneath her wings brings her down to earth. Ignoramus. Fancy dress Fatima! Bougainvillea! Pithecanthropus! Odd-toed ungulate!! Nit-witted ninepin! Squawking popinjay!
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| F1 car, that uses wind beneath the wings to stay low |
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| Airplane, that uses wind above the wings to fly high |
PS: I'm kidding. It's fun to win an argument conclusively in an age of "it depends".
