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Lift not only helps the boomerang stay in the air, it also puts that twisting force on the spinning boomerang, which makes the boomerang turn slightly. The boomerang keeps spinning, the wings keep making lift, putting a torque on the spinning boomerang which makes it turn, and keep turning, until it makes a big circle.
Imagine you’re riding that bicycle on a big empty parking lot. You’re riding no-handed, you lean slightly to the left, so you gradually turn left. If you keep leaning you’ll go in a circle. If you lean just a little bit, you’ll go in a big circle. If you lean a lot, you’ll go in a smaller, tighter circle.
That’s essentially what happens when a boomerang returns.
When you throw a boomerang, you’ve got two “torques” or twisting, rotational forces: the first one is the spinning force you give the boomerang when you throw it. It’s spinning on its axis.
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