Don't compare the pressure of the air in the workshop to the fast moving air in the nozzle - compare the air in the system of the compressor.
In an air compressor, the lowest pressure air is the air moving through the hose and out the nozzle - the highest pressure air in the system is the 'still air' in the cannister. Think of an inflated balloon that you blow up and let go of, the highest pressure air is in the balloon, the lowest pressure air is immediately next to the mouth of the balloon, despite being the fastest moving.
It might feel surprising, but the air that moves faster across the top of the wing is lower pressure than the slower moving air below the wing. That both the air below and above the wing are higher pressure than 'all the rest of the air in the sky' is inconsequential to the the plane - we only need to consider the air directly interacting with the wing. (though this is not to deny the impacts of angle of attack etc etc.)
The thing I never found satisfying was this notion that the air over the top moves faster because it has further to go - in what way does the length of a path that lies in the air's future have any effect on its speed now? As if the air over the top somehow has to match up with the air it was next to before the wing split it away below? What mysterious force would account for that?
The best I could arrive at was that the forward motion of the wing causes the back side of the curved wing top simply to pull away from the air in that region, reducing the pressure there, and incidentally (because Bernoulli) that air then moves faster as a result.
>The thing I never found satisfying was this notion that the air over the top moves faster because it has further to go
On the one hand I agree that it is a stupid way to phrase it. On the other hand if the air doesn't "make it" then there is nothing where the wing just was aka a vacuum. The low pressure area that forms above the wing sucks the air along making it faster. Why doesn't all the air rush to fill the low pressure area? Well for air below the wing there is a wing in the way, air above the air flowing over the wing does rush down to fill the void providing lift, air behind the wing does as well creating some drag.
Same for angle of attack it deflects the air that would normally be above and behind the wing down (providing some lift),making a low pressure area form above the wing which the air speeds to fill.
> air above the air flowing over the wing does rush down to fill the void providing lift, air behind the wing does as well creating some drag
Just a nitpick, but these forces are never pulling, only pushing. The air rushing to fill the voids is not pulling the wing, is the air below or in front if the wing that pushes (and doesn't find an equal push on the other side).
Imagine I fill a bathtub full of marbles - and I pull a solid semi circle through the marbles. The marbles that flat side moves past will barely have to move, the marbles that are displaced by the round side will have to 'move further'. They won't come out exactly at the same time, but they will have had to move further and move faster as the semi circle moves through the bath.
I guess you could do the same thought experiment with foam/sponge balls in a bath - no matter if they squeeze, they will still be moved out the way and follow the path of the semi-circle shape.
The speed of the wing is what causes the air to move around the two faces of the wing. The air has to move around the wing as it is being pulled through it.
Imagine pulling a fixed walled tube though the air, the air will move through the tube at roughly the speed that the tube is pulled through the air.
Now imagine pulling a funnel that starts off large and gets smaller. The same air will now have to move faster to get through the funnel (higher pressure at the mouth of the funnel, lower at the end).
> the air that moves faster across the top of a wing.
Except absolutely flat wings also work where the air is traveling the same distance. They aren’t nearly as efficient, but still produce lift.
Wings shape relates to skin effects, vortexes, turbulence, and drag. There’s a lot of complex interactions involved which don’t simplify to faster moving air creates lift.
Does that flat wing work with a zero angle of attack (that is, parallel to the ground) or does it have to point upwards?
Race cars use downward pointing wings to generate the opposite of lift, to push the car into the ground. Of course even car wings have evolved into more efficient shapes, because there is a competition to win those races.
All wings need a positive or negative when upside down angle of attack to generate lift. People often draw the cord line incorrectly because the flat part of a wing isn’t zero and wings are mounted with a positive angel of attack so aircraft can be level in flight even with a ~15 degree angle of attack.
Car aerodynamics is complicated. People talk about spoiler downforce without really considering the details. If you push down on the rear spoiler of a toy F1 car the front end lifts up because it’s located behind the rear wheel. The goal is specifically downforce on the rear tires.
Similarly the rotational force on an axle wants to lift the front end. There’s another torque from the tires being located below the force of drag which again wants to lift the front of a car.
For strait line dragsters they accept the front wheels having reduced contact with the road for improved acceleration because they don’t need to turn. Where Indy and F1 uses front wings, but winged sprint cars pushed the classic spoiler forward on top of adding a wing for additional control. In racing it’s all about different trade offs for each sport.
I should have said to generate lift in level flight. Drop anything with air resistance and it’s technically generating lift. However it’s important to separate the angle of attack relative to the airstream vs angle of attack relative to the ground for falling objects.
Anyway non-semmetric airfoils are about efficiency when the aircraft never flies upside down. Unfortunately you occasionally see mislabeled diagrams where the angel of attack seems to be zero when the wing is laying flat rather than the leading and trailing edge being level which creates a great deal of confusion.
In an air compressor, the lowest pressure air is the air moving through the hose and out the nozzle - the highest pressure air in the system is the 'still air' in the cannister. Think of an inflated balloon that you blow up and let go of, the highest pressure air is in the balloon, the lowest pressure air is immediately next to the mouth of the balloon, despite being the fastest moving.
It might feel surprising, but the air that moves faster across the top of the wing is lower pressure than the slower moving air below the wing. That both the air below and above the wing are higher pressure than 'all the rest of the air in the sky' is inconsequential to the the plane - we only need to consider the air directly interacting with the wing. (though this is not to deny the impacts of angle of attack etc etc.)