>From what I know: Some of the surface technology revolves around either grooves, riblets or fibres to channel the boundary layer around a body in a particular way (believe it or not there was even a trial of swimmers who shaved or didn't shave their body hair - the result was that body hair could improve your swimming speed providing it was within a particular length range).
Note for the humuorously inclined: we could do a trial to see if body hair length improves the performance of a glider pilot..... Back on topic - The technology is being used in America's Cup yachting and other areas as well. The big problem is that the surface is optimised for one particular speed. In a swimmer, the particular speed is a tad faster than what you would go without the costume. With gliding we come across a number of problems: - we have two optimum speeds: climb and cruise. We can't optimise for one without detriment to the other. You could have a climb surface or a cruise surface but not both. - with air (rather than water) the grooves or riblets are very fine. They would be easily damaged (giving the surface a buff and polish could easily damage them) or easily clogged by bugs or dirt. The technology is being trialled on older airliners (they have one optimum speed: cruise at altitude) with 3M making adhesive plastic sheets that you stick on in critical areas (appliqué I think they call the technology). The trials did show a big improvement in economy. The big problem was the technology and the effort to apply it, cost more than the fuel that was saved. With increasing fuel costs, who knows?? No Blaniks were riveted in the writing of this e-mail. Anthony -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Derry Sent: Wednesday, 26 March 2008 10:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Aus-soaring] Swimmers getting helped by new surfaces In the news today there is much mention of swimmers using hi-tech suits rather than swimming in brief costumes to improve their times. Does anyone on this list know much about this subject and is there any relevance from what these people have learned that can help us to improve the performance of our gliders ? Michael Derry _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
