At 10:27 PM 26/03/2008, you wrote:
>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
Grooves or controlled roughness skin is hardly new. I bought some 3M
grooved applique back in early 1987.
Trouble is only reduces drag when the grooves run in the flow
direction and increses the drag otherwise. This is rare on gliders as
the flow direction changes with AOA.
Might work better on airliners where you fly at a particular AOA in
cruise. I think one problem with the applique was when used on
pressure cabins the rivets sometimes leaked enough to cause bubbles
in the applique. IIRC the drag gain decrease on jet airliners was
around 1%. Most airline execs would sell their grandmothers for that
but the idea still hasn't caught on.
Check out the Sinha Deturbulator.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
fax Int'l + 61 746 358796
cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784
Int'l + 61 429 355784
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: www.borgeltinstruments.com
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
