Wind Speed Over a Wing

If you’ve been looking into flight training for a while, you’ve likely heard some derivation of the following: “air must move over the top of the wing faster to meet the wind that flows under the wing at the same time.”  Well, I always wondered why the wind “must” meet at the same time.  It turns out, it need not do so.  The following video briefly shows that the wind over the top of a wing does move faster than the wind beneath the wing.  However, the wind over the top of the wing also arrives at the end of the wing much sooner than that of the wind that travels beneath the wing.

So there you have it.  The wind speed over a wing is greater, but maybe not for the reason you’ve always heard.  Everything you’ve learned likely still applies, but don’t think that the air over the top and bottom of the wing arrives at the end of the wing at the same time.