Hal,

I would say that your explanation, reduced to its essence, captures the 'bottom line' of lift generation, which is that the flow of the air over the wing causes a pressure difference between the top and bottom surfaces of the wing, which gives net lift. This is accurate, but is not necessarily complete, in that it doesn't answer all of the other questions that people seem to have about the secret of lift generation. If someone interested in R/C planes asks how a wing generates lift, I think the best answer would be "The flow of air over the wing generates lower pressure on the top than on the bottom, and the details can get kind of involved". If that same person wants to know more so that he/she can design a better plane, then is the time to start learning more about the characteristics of airfoils/wings that would help them out. For example, for high lift, a highly cambered airfoil section is desireable, or for low induced drag a high aspect ratio is desireable, etc. Even at that level, the all-encompassing explanation of every related phenomenon is not really necessary. That's not to say that some physical insight is worthless, in fact, I think it is extremely valuable.

Irumd,

I doubt that the 'equal transit time' nonsense was ever taught in any engineering curriculum. I think it was developed to explain the idea to laymen. This happens all the time. For instance, we have a population that generally equates entropy with 'disorder', which is almost completely worthless, and results in faulty conclusions about the consequences of entropy. Generally, what is taught to engineers is a set of methods to design airfoils/wings/aircraft. A thorough, detailed, consistent explanation of the minute detail of lift generation and all its consequences is not necessarily taught. For airfoils in particular, pressure difference is what its all about. Tools are available that reliably allow engineers to predict the upper and lower surface pressures for any proposed airfoil, at least for design conditions. To a great extent, tools are even available to produce an airfoil which will give a desired pressure distribution. Users of these tools do not need to possess the end-all explanation of all the details of lift generation, and probably don't. Tools for designing wings are similar in nature, but somewhat less accurate and less 'black box' in capability.

banktoturn