How do wings generate lift?: 1. Popular myths, what they mean and why they work

How lift is generated by a moving wing is understood satisfactorily. But the rigorous explanation requires elaborate theoretical background, and hence there are many simpler explanations in the popular literature. In the first part of this article, some such popular models are discussed after briefly dealing with some required preliminary ideas. The concluding part of the article will deal with some simple quantitative models and then tie up many of these simple ideas and propositions together to the rigorous momentum conservation principle placing these popular models in perspective.