A hands-on display allowed me to literally push against the force of the atmosphere and measure it. We're concentrating on fixed-wing flight, with some attention to balloons, helicopters, gliders and spaceflight. He showed me wind and smoke tunnels, hands-on devices that let even a D student see how the shape of a wing gives it lift and how lift relates to airspeed. If you double the airspeed, you quadruple the lift. You just keep your angle of attack high, and you get more lift.
People fly from one city to another upside down.
It's kinda stupid, but you can do it. Acrobatic planes often have symmetrical wings, he added. Playing with a smoke tunnel, a visitor can see what happens when you come in for a landing. You change the angle of the flaps and the air flows around the surfaces in a new pattern. This enabled me to lecture my guides a little on one of my favorite subjects, the Wright brothers.