- published: 11 Mar 2016
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In association football, the position of wing half or wing half back) was popularly used in the late nineteenth and first half of the 20th centuries. Forming part of the half back line, the wing-half would occupy the flanks of the pitch in a Defensive Midfield position, in a position either known as left half or right half.
In early 2-3-5 formations the wing-halves would flank the centre half on both sides, although after the 1925 offside law change, many managers withdrew the centre half into defence, leaving the two wing halves on their own in midfield, supporting the more attacking inside forwards, in a formation known as the "WM".
With the advent of flat back fours and the 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formations, the wing half position was abandoned and wing halves were pushed forward and into the middle to become central midfielders or became a second central defender, for example Bobby Moore.
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid. A wing is an airfoil, which has a streamlined cross-sectional shape producing a useful lift to drag ratio.
The word "wing" from the Old Norse vængr for many centuries referred mainly to the foremost limbs of birds (in addition to the architectural aisle.) But in recent centuries the word's meaning has extended to include lift producing appendages of insects, bats, pterosaurs, boomerangs, some sail boats and aircraft.
"Wing" can also mean an inverted airfoil on a race car that generates a downward force to increase traction.
Various species of penguins and other flighted or flightless water birds such as auks, cormorants, guillemots, shearwaters, eider and scoter ducks and diving petrels are avid swimmers, and use their wings to propel through water.
A wing's aerodynamic quality is expressed as its lift-to-drag ratio. The lift a wing generates at a given speed and angle of attack can be one to two orders of magnitude greater than the total drag on the wing. A high lift-to-drag ratio requires a significantly smaller thrust to propel the wings through the air at sufficient lift.