I am by no means an aerodynamicist myself either, but I'll give my 2 cents.
Like you said, as smooth surfaces as possible reduce drag and therefore improve their flight dynamics. For example on gliders, it is normal to wash the entire plane after a days worth of flying because of the squashed bugs, which would reduce the gliders gliding ratio due to increased drag. Then again, it's probable that not all planes require such great detail to their flight dynamics. I think there's a trade off between drag (and induced fuel consumption) and cost. -- Mats Rauhala sip:mas...@ekiga.net
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