Chris wrote:
> Looking for more speed out of our Ercoupes. > I think modern wheelpants are a possibility. The trailing arm Coupes are a particular problem for wheel pants as the support structure has a radically different angle between on the ground and in flight. The only wheel pants that I have seen for Coupes does make them look nice, but . . . When they were designed, there was no practical way to do rigorous wind tunnel testing. At any rate, they do very little for drag reduction. The airspeed increase reports I've seen for those wheel pants is minimal. If someone can develop some modern, aerodynamically efficient wheel pants that work with our gear then there would probably be a market. If they can be made to be tough and withstand grass and snowy fields, then the market would be even better. Me, I would not want to increase my smooth air cruise on a Coupe past about 118. Probably, I wouldn't even want to cruise that fast without making darn sure my control linkages were quite snug. (That one accident in Sebring, Florida, where there was a somewhat credible report that aileron flutter was seen has me in cautious mode. Remember that *I* had aileron flutter, once, when my control linkages were loose.) And, in rough air, I slow down anyway to be gentle to the airframe. Fred warned us at every fly-in he attended in his later years to be cautious about the g-load of those turbulence bumps in high speed cruise. Heck, in the major thermals over Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, I slowed down to 70-80 mph to be gentle to the airframe. At those speeds, even the biggest thermals were just a gentle wallowing in the waves (even though they made me airsick). At any rate, decreased fuel consumption could be desirable if good, light weight, efficient, robust wheel pants could be designed. Ed
