# Stupid (?) question: How do planes really fly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890 "2026-05-07T14:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/61 "2026-05-20T10:16:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I like how the title of the vid is “Why Everyone wants this U Wing …” and in fact no one does. I’m not “everyone”, but as a youth I built and flew model aeroplanes…and I would quite like to build and fly a much scaled down version. It would certainly attract attention at the amateur model airshows I used to visit. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/62 "2026-05-20T13:25:03Z")
When I was a kid I dabbled in balsa & tissue paper flying models. All as U-control line models, not R/C. But I spent far more time drooling over the catalogs of R/C models & gear. There was a model which had a fully circular barrel-like wing. Imagine the duct around a ducted fan engine but without the engine. That was the entire wing; no horizontal surface wing at all. There was a typical more or less cylindrical narrow fuselage along the barrel’s axis with a tractor prop at the front and traditional horizontal & vertical tail at the rear. IIRC the inner diameter of the barrel wing was 2-3x the prop diameter, so 5-6x the fuselage diameter. Other than two spindly gear legs sticking out of the bottom of the wing/duct, the airplane looked all but identical regardless of its roll angle. Becasue it couldn’t really bank, all lateral control was by yaw. I tried a few minutes ago to Google up some pix. No luck. Too many conflicting pix of different things. Specifically, there is a completely unrelated design with Fletner rotors as wings with their axes in the typical straight wing configuration jutting laterally out both sides of the fuselage. Which wings are also described as barrel-shaped. Anyhow, one of those duct-wing designs would also be hit at your flying park. If anyone has luck finding a pic of what I’m describing, I’d appreciate a cite. There are models, homebuilts, and 1930s era experiments with a ducted fan engine buried behind the cockpit. That’s not this. Those designs all have significant traditional wings extending ahead, behind, or beyond their engine duct. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/63 "2026-05-20T17:36:55Z")
I didn’t see anything like a model aircraft, but there was the 1950s French prototype tailstanding VTOL jet interceptor, the Snecma Coléoptère: > **[The Coléoptère: France's Insane Annular-Wing VTOL Jet | MiGFlug.com Blog](https://migflug.com/jetflights/the-coleoptere-frances-insane-annular-wing-vtol-jet/)** > > Picture a jet engine standing on its tail. Now wrap an annular wing around it — a hollow doughnut of aluminium and steel. Put a man in a tilting seat at the top, light the afterburner, and launch the whole thing straight up like a Roman candle. That,... Failed because the annular wing (applicable technical term) is terrible in transition from hover to aerodynamic flight. Almost no control authority. Plus the design was a pilot’a nightmare for seeing and accurately controlling attitude during transition. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/64 "2026-05-20T18:13:28Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > annular wing (applicable technical term) D’oh! 🤦‍♂️ Thank you!! I was wracking my brain trying to come up with the right word. **[annular wing - Google Image Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=annular+wing&hl=en&source=hp&uact=5&oq=annular+wing&sclient=img&udm=2)** turns up lots of artists’ conceptions and a couple of real designs. And of course, a couple of miscategorized examples of a pancake wing which is something completely different. The first sketchy drawing in this post on another messageboard is akin to the model I recall. Although I don’t recall a twin-boom tail. **[Lockheed Ring-Wing Projects | Secret Projects Forum](https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/lockheed-ring-wing-projects.21641/)**. That OP & thread is a bit of a mess, with the various images not really being related to one another. Which that OP did not realize. But the sketch itself is fine for my purposes here. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/65 "2026-05-20T19:34:24Z")
Sounds like it might have been Roy Clough’s “Hoopskirt”, published in Popular mechanics in 1955? > **[Oz : Hoopskirt plan - free download](https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=9681)** ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/66 "2026-05-20T19:47:19Z")
The moment I read the model’s name in your post I said “_Eureka!_”. That’s it. I didn’t even need to click the link to know you’d found the right thing. But yes, looking at the plans, that’s the one I remembered. Thanks for digging it up. A lot of different colloquial names had been rattling around in my head trying to make contact with the ancient memory. “beer barrel”, “bean can”, etc. But none close to hoop skirt. I can rest easy tonight knowing this mystery is solved. 👍 👏 ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/67 "2026-05-20T20:04:19Z")
My son brought home a book titles something similar to “100 questions from 10-year olds” and had one-page answers in simple terms for questions like the OP’s. I read the section on airplanes flying and nearly collapsed from indignation. Not only did it push the “equal transit” myth but said the air on the bottom “wants to” go to the top so it pushes up the wing. Ugh. This is the same book that said the tides are caused by the moon’s magnetic field and when it’s closer to Earth, the magnetic pull is stronger and causes tides. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Humbagger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Humbagger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humbagger)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/68 "2026-05-20T20:49:21Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > air “doesn’t care” and has no incentive to flow faster. > [@DesertDog](#): > > what motive the top-side air had to accelerate so it wound up even with the bottom-side, shorter path air again. > [@how airplanes fly.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-airplanes-fly/847658/24): > > If the molecules that take the longer path didn’t catch up to those that took the shorter path, you’d end up with a mass imbalance. Not only does the top side air play catch up, for reasons explained in this thread, it can easily overtake the bottom side air: [https://youtu.be/UqBmdZ-BNig?si=Phk82263zxGNh7am](https://youtu.be/UqBmdZ-BNig?si=Phk82263zxGNh7am) ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/69 "2026-05-20T22:23:17Z")
Sticking to the annular/hoop wing theme; I remember building this paper airplane from when I was a kid. > **[How to Make a Straw Airplane](https://www.mombrite.com/how-to-make-a-straw-airplane/)** > > Move over paper airplanes! This straw and paper airplane is easy to make (no origami involved!) and flies like a champ. I know it looks funny and you might be skeptical that these paper hoops [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890.md?page=3)