Why are thinner airfoils better at creating lift than thicker ones?

Question

can it be related to the pressure difference (bernoulli's principle)

Answer 1

A thinner wing can produce more lift than a thicker wing at very high speeds, under similar conditions. An aircraft with a given amount of power will be able to go faster with a thinner wing. If the speed is high enough then more lift would be able to be produced as a result of higher airspeeds, resulting in less drag. This happens because drag increases at the square of speed, while lift is more linear.

All things being equal, a thicker wing is always going to make more lift than a thinner wing.

Answer 2

Thinner wings are used for high speed aircraft.  Thicker wings create more lift due to the pressure differential being higher.

Answer 3

John R explains the principle of lift very well but Avrifan has the real answer.  It's not the thickness it's the cross section contour that determines lift and subsequent drag.  

Thrust can maintain forward velocity but that in itself is independent of aerodynamics relevant to stable, i.e. controllable flight.  

So the right answer, thumbed down by the uninformed, is the actual correct answer.

Best answer is mine because I explained your question.  But I secede to Avrifan because she answered it perfectly.

Answer 4

High speed air craft rely more on vectored thrust then on the lift created by an airfoil. Flaps are used to create the higher lift of the thicker airfoils at lower speeds (such as take offs and landings).

Answer 5

They aren't better at creating lift.  They're better at creating less drag.

Answer 6

Thinner or thicker wings have nothing to do with creating more or lesser lift. It is the shape of the aerofoil which dictates the amount of lift which a wing will generate.

Answer 7

thin=high speed

thick=slow speed

Answer 8

Thinner airfoils do not create more lift; they create less drag at the lower angles of attack that are used at higher speeds.  At a high angle of attack a thinner airfoil will see the airflow separate from the wing - the onset of aerodynamic stall - sooner than a thicker airfoil.

     Because the airflow will remain attached at a higher angle of attack, a thicker air foil can generate lift at a lower speed than a thin airfoil.

    Bernoulli's principle is the most miss-taught piece of science on the planet.   It defines the relationship between speed and pressure of a flow of gas.   When you raise the speed, the pressure lowers - that's not why airplanes fly.  The reverse of the equation is also true - if you lower the pressure by displacing the air, the speed increases. That's what happens with an aircraft wing.

     Airplanes fly because of Newton - as the airfoil moves forward the angle of attack displaces air downward.  That's why aircraft with symmetrical airfoils - or toy balsa gliders with flat wings - are able to fly.  If you increase the angle of the wing past a critical angle, instead of being deflected downward, the flow begins separating from the top of the wing, creating a huge amount of drag, and the downward airflow is instead pulled into the "wake" of the wing.  That's a stall.

    The shape of the airfoil is designed to minimize drag over the anticipated speeds and angles of attack the plane is expected to encounter in normal operation. Its major contribution to lift is to help keep the airflow attached as long as possible.