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Blow air over a wing. How fast before it lifts its own weight?
Aerodynamics lab · Last updated: 16 October 2026
Blow air over a wing. How fast must it go before the wing lifts its own weight? In this 3D lab, you increase the airflow, watch the forces on a wing and find the moment lift wins.
What you'll discover
- A wing deflects air downwards and has lower pressure above it, which together create an upward lift force.
- Lift grows very quickly with speed: doubling the airspeed roughly quadruples the lift.
- A wing lifts off only when lift is greater than its weight, which is why planes need a fast run to take off.
The science in plain words
A wing is shaped and tilted so that it turns the air flowing past it downwards. By Newton's third law, if the wing pushes air down, the air pushes the wing up. At the same time, the air flowing over the curved top surface speeds up and its pressure drops, while the pressure underneath stays higher. The pressure difference across the wing and the downward push on the air are two descriptions of the same upward force, called lift.
A popular explanation says air over the top must travel further and so has to catch up with air underneath at the back edge. That is a myth: the air over the top actually arrives sooner, and the real cause is the way the wing's shape and tilt bend the flow.
Lift depends on air density, wing area, the angle of the wing and, most strongly, speed. Lift increases with the square of the speed, so doubling the airspeed gives about four times the lift. A wing at rest has no lift, so an aeroplane must speed down the runway until lift exceeds its weight. Tilting the wing more increases lift, but only up to a point. Beyond it, the airflow breaks away from the top surface and lift suddenly drops, which pilots call a stall. Drag, the air resistance on the wing, also rises with speed.
Where it fits
- India, NCERT: Class 8 science, Chapter 6: Pressure, Winds, Storms, and Cyclones
- India, NCERT: Class 9 science, Chapter 8: Force and Laws of Motion
- India, NCERT: How wings make lift goes beyond the NCERT syllabus for classes 6 to 10; the lab builds on air pressure and Newton's laws.
- United States: Grades 6 to 8
- Next Generation Science Standards: MS-PS2-2
Common questions
How do aeroplane wings create lift?
A wing is shaped and angled so that it pushes the passing air downwards, and the air pushes the wing upwards in return. This also leaves lower pressure above the wing than below it. The resulting upward force, lift, holds the aeroplane up once it is moving fast enough.
Why do planes need a runway to take off?
Lift depends strongly on speed, and a wing standing still produces none. The plane must accelerate along the runway until the air rushing over its wings creates more lift than the plane weighs. Only then can it rise into the air.
What is a stall in an aeroplane?
A stall happens when a wing is tilted too steeply against the airflow. The air can no longer follow the curved top surface, so it breaks away in swirls and lift drops suddenly. It has nothing to do with the engine stopping.
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Try it yourself
The Aerodynamics lab is one of the interactive 3D science labs inside Taz. Change one thing, predict what will happen, then run it and watch. Labs open after you sign in.