My apologies, I should have been WAY more specific. Absolutely, it is the wing that needs to be nearly horizontal (with an angle of attack). The fuselage has little to do with it. HOWEVER, in most airplanes, as far as I know, the axis of the fuselage and the airfoil are parallel, hence my statement in my previous response concerning the fuselage having an "angle of attack". The F-15 is the only plane I know of where the wings are pitched up relative to the fuselage. I'm sure there are many, many others. Again, I'm not an airplane expert

Secondly, you were correct about my CG comment. I re-read it and couldn't believe I said it. Indeed, when the plane is horizontal with your fingertips supporting it, you are holding the plane up at its CG. Upwards pitch during flight comes from the fact that the CG is placed slightly back because of the stabilizer, which produces enough lift to prevent the plane from pointing straight up. The idea is that there should be no lift-induced moment around the center of gravity when the plane is flying, otherwise it'll keep pitching up or down.

Of course there is a great deal more to airplane flight than what I stated. My initial point was that the physics that make a plane go up are exceedingly simple. Lift resulting from thrust and properly balancing the weight of the plane over the area(s) that is (are) providing the lift. When I told DaMan that "any plane you design will almost certinly fly", I was assuming that he was knowledgable enough to design a plane that met the above requirements. The "much more to it" you're speaking of include things like dihedral, washout, high-wing/low-wing, wing chord, etc. etc. These affect flight characteristics. You said it yourself:

"Adequate planes fly extremely well". Getting something to fly is quite easy, because the principles of flight are simple. I'm not talking about a 3-D plane or a pylon racer. I'm talking about just a plane that flies.