An efficient wing (high AR) pulls air upward as much as it pushes it downward... with no -net- downwash. It bends the air. This is how lift is created. Look at circulation theory.... it's in the equations.

The airfoil explanation is relatively simple... an airfoil is an infinite wing. While we cannot build an infinite wing, we can simulate one. When we test this airfoil, if there is any net change in momentum around an airfoil... upwards or downwards... it logically follows that because an airfoil is of infinite length... we have just created an infinite force (change in momentum). There is no infinite force, yet we still get lift.

Are you going to argue that there is no upwash in front of the wing? Or that that same upwash creates a negative lifting effect? I don't think i've seen anything in this thread to account for what happens in front of the wing... only behind. It's like trying to explain road apples without seeing a horse eat... sorry that was the best analogy I could come up with! LOL

Remember a wing does not simply push on the air... it itself is pushed -through- the air... if it isn't, it falls out of the sky.