Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Taking flight

By Diane Martindale

5 May 2001

Why don’t planes fall out of the sky? If you believe Boeing, Airbus and just about every textbook on the subject, it’s because air travels faster over the “hump” of a wing, which creates lift. But Fermilab physicist David Anderson is convinced they’re all wrong. Forget the fancy fluid dynamics, he says. Newton’s three laws of motion are all you need. In his quest for the truth he learned to fly, and has co-written a new book claiming to set the record straight. So will pilots and engineers have to be retrained? And will tomorrow’s aircraft look any different? Diane…

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