• Question: how do wings fly

    Asked by imy to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 12 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      It’s all about their shape. The path over the top is longer than the path under the bottom, so as it goes forward air travels faster over the top than the bottom. This causes higher pressure underneath, lower pressure on top and the wing is pushed upwards, hence flying. If you want to find out more, this is called Bernoulli’s principle.

    • Photo: Peter Francis

      Peter Francis answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      This is also the same way that planes take off and footballers curl a ball. Creating an area of high pressure on one side of the ball causes it to swing in the opposite direction. David Beckham was the master of this technique!

    • Photo: Carolyn Nielsen

      Carolyn Nielsen answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      If you look at a wing from the wide you can see what Richard is talking about as they tend to be arched, which is what makes the path over the top of the wing longer.

      Birds have all sorts of other interesting adaptations to help them fly, which people try to learn from when developing things we’d like to fly, like planes! For example, bird bones are a honeycomb structure (lots of holes!) which mean that they are very light. The way the feathers are arranged is also designed to not obstruct air flow over the top of the wing. That’s why to land, you’ll see birds turn their wings to make them at a right angle to the ground. This causes a lot of resistance and slows them down.

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