To clarify, let us compare the principles of aerodynamic flight with what I shall call aerophysics “flight”: Airspeed versus speed of air. The importance of understanding velocity relations and the directional forces and reactive forces associated with aerodynamic flight cannot be overstressed. A better than average knowledge is necessary before one can delve into the basis of aerophysics “flight” which, in some cases, requires complete rejection of aerodynamic results to obtain full conception.

Essentially, aerodynamic lift occurs due to differential velocities of air above and below a wing. Direct Thrust forces are used to propel the airplane only, and it is a secondary effect of the resulting motion that provides any air movement whatsoever to the air envelope. The only motion imparted to the air surrounding a lifting airfoil is a disturbance resulting from friction as the wing separates the air mass while being “pushed” through it. The shape of the parting surfaces induces a differential air velocity of low magnitude no matter what the relative velocity of the moving airfoil. The salient belief that the air is in motion, and with a high velocity, is the greatest misconception of the aircraft industry.

It is necessary to understand that the air is static, and that the airfoil alone moves, before the connotation of aerophysics “lifting force” can be perceived and evaluated. For this reason, applications of aerophysics “flight” have remained long in infancy, and improvements in aerodynamic flight have been contingent on power plant development.

Basically, for air to move there must be changes in pressure; therefore, if air moves, there IS a change in pressure. The higher the velocity of air in motion, the greater the pressure differential becomes normal to a surface of a structure which has this surface—only—exposed to the airflow. In correct application of a channel wing the dynamic impact pressure of high-velocity airflow is applied normal to the inside periphery of the channel. (No “airfoil section” is needed.) At zero forward velocity of the aircraft (relative to the stationary air envelope or the ground) the resultant impact pressure differential across the channel is greatest because of spread in relative velocities (mass air in motion within the channel relative to still air outside of the channel). This force—a force that is not truly aerodynamic lift—is a collapsing force on the channel and is counteracted by structural design and strength to transmit the pressure as a directional force.

(Additional controls provide deflection of this force away from the mean normal. When deflected as a “lifting force” the differential pressures provide an “impossible” Lift when viewed in an aerodynamic concept. For correct appreciation this force must be viewed in the light of a hydraulic force upon a sealed, evacuated half-cylinder submerged in a dense liquid.)…