Assumptions.

In the following explanations and discussions of the generation of lift by an aircraft's wings,
we consider the air as an ideal fluid. Consequently, we make three major assumptions about
the physical properties of the airflow.

The Compressibility of the Airflow. It is assumed throughout this book, that the
airflow over a wing is incompressible. Now, you will, of course, realise that air can
be compressed very easily. Air in an inflated balloon is at higher than atmospheric
pressure, as a child discovers when he releases a blown-up balloon and sees it
propelled around a room as if it were an errant rocket. If you have ever inflated a
bicycle tyre, you may have felt the heat generated in the end of the pump chamber
as you do work on the air to compress it and force it into the tyre. And, of course,
skin divers carry air bottles on their backs which contain what is actually called
"compressed air".

However, when air flows over the wing of an aircraft in flight, provided the speed is
low and nowhere reaches a value of more than half the local speed of sound (Mach
0.5), the airflow is not compressed and, in any given atmospheric conditions, and at
constant altitude, will maintain constant density. This assumption that air is
incompressible works well for low-speed flight and simplifies the analysis of lift
generation. The assumption is important for light aircraft pilots because if the speed
of the airflow exceeds Mach 0.5, the compressibility of air does become an issue.
But then we would be in the realms of high-speed flight and beyond the scope of this
book. For your reference, the speed of sound, at sea-level, in the ICAO Standard
Atmosphere, is about 662 knots (340.3 metres/sec or 1 116.4 feet/ sec); so a light
aircraft will always be flying at far less than half that speed.

The Viscosity of the Airflow. When considering lift, we assume that air is inviscid;
that is, that air is of a viscosity approaching zero (See Page 9). In reality, air does
possess a measurable amount of viscosity. However, the viscosity of air is very low,
and air flowing around a wing does act as if it were inviscid, except in the very thin
layers immediately next to the surface of the wing, which we call the boundary
layer. We must note, though, that if air really were inviscid, we could not account for
the force of drag. So, to sum up, our consideration of lift assumes that air has
zero viscosity, but, in discussing drag, we must take the low viscosity of air
into account.

Steady Flow. In our treatment of lift, we assume that the airflow around the wing is
steady. This means that the pattern of the airflow around the wing does not change
with time. This does not mean that the velocity at all points in the flow is constant but
it does mean that, at any given point in the airflow, velocity is constant.

The Flat-Plate Wing.

One of the simplest ways of changing the direction of a horizontal airflow, so that the air is
directed downwards, is to move a flat plate through the air inclined at a small positive angle to
the airflow (See Figure 3.4). You will probably be familiar with wings which have a "flat plate"
cross-section from the simple type of wing used on model aircraft produced for children of all
ages. Note that the angle between the plate and the undisturbed airflow, before the flow is
modified by the wing, is called the angle of attack and is designated by the greek letter, a.