In the aviation world there is one argument that continues. Like the perpetual flow of water from a mountain spring, both sources of opinion have little sense of quitting.

The story of how lift is generated over a wing…or aerofoil (airfoil) is one that is told around the piloting campfires but not so much as a kumbaya my lord is sung across the two warring parties.

In the red corner sit the devoted followers of Sir Isaac Newton and his third law of motion. If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Therefore air collides with the aerofoil as it moves through the air. Some air hits the underside and is deflected downwards. The equal and opposite reaction is that the aerofoil moves in the opposite direction. Thus giving us the generated lift to overcome the weight of the aircraft which enables flight.

In the blue corner sit the devoted followers of Daniel Bernoulli who suggested that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in static pressure or potential energy, based on the conservation of energy.

In other words, if two molecules meet the forward edge of a wind at the same time and one travels on the underside, whilst the other travels on the upperside whilst covering a greater distance due to the curved shape of the wing, then to meet at the rear of the wing at the same time, there would be a speed difference between the two molecules.

Upperside molecule would travel faster thus creating a lower pressure than the slower underside molecule. The high pressure below forces the wing to move into the lower pressure above, hence generating lift which may overcome the weight of the aircraft.

Each side of the divide have merit but which leads the way and can claim the definitive mantel of truth is the source of debate.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the cessation of hostilities would occur just for that single Christmas Day and a football could be kicked around a muddy no man’s land? To hold hands and dance around the burning logs and agree to share the prize?

For that is where the more lucid and less robust positioning would occupy. A combination of both with an agreement to share the spoils of war without ever really knowing who won the battle of right and wrong.