Stupid (?) question: How do planes really fly?

[robby]

@DesertDog

@Raza

However, more recent discussions focused on the idea that the too-side air “doesn’t care” and has no incentive to flow faster.

When I was arguing with someone deeply wedded to the Bernoulli explanation I asked what motive the top-side air had to accelerate so it wound up even with the bottom-side, shorter path air again. “Was it having an interrupted conversation?”

I’m not wedded to the Bernoulli principle as an explanation, but as I noted in my response to you in the other linked thread:

@robby

I always took this to be a manifestation of the continuity principle. See here for more detail. 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.