[ShadowAce]

If I recall some high-school physics (a VERY long time ago), planes move forward by a combination of the air being pushed rearward, but also by the partial vacuum created in front of the motor that results when the air is being pushed backwards.

I could be wrong, but that is what I remember from high school.

[RightWhale]

air being pushed rearward, but also by the partial vacuum created in front of the motor that results when the air is being pushed backwards.

There probably is some partial vacuum, especially when considering propellers and the use of lift to generate forward speed, but the idea in the article is of having a two-component medium on earth. One component is the vehicle, the other is the mobile medium being pushed out the back. Even the mechanism of a chromatograph involves a two-component medium, the stationary and the mobile phases. It takes two components to generate controlled motion.

[El Gato]

If I recall some high-school physics (a VERY long time ago), planes move forward by a combination of the air being pushed rearward, but also by the partial vacuum created in front of the motor that results when the air is being pushed backwards. I could be wrong, but that is what I remember from high school.

That's essentially correct. High bypass ratio turbofans, like on most airliners, but even the ones on fighters and bombers (excepting the BUFF perhaps) get much or even most of their thrust by this effect. IOW, they don't so much blow as suck their way through the air. :)