Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] RE: airfoils

["Nero Wolfe" <wolfe19@megsinet.net>]

The side plates prevent some 90% of the losses due to tip vortexes.  

To give you some idea of the effectiveness and the power of these vortexes.  When they started installing "winglets" (end plates)  On the tips of 747 wings, their fuel efficancy went up by 10%.  A common plane without winglets, the 737 has tip vortexes so strong you can't fly a leerjet behind it any closer than several miles.  If you have seen the movie pushing tin, the wind that blows the stars around the runway is the wingtip vortexes, not the jet exhaust, or even the air displaced by the plane.  

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On 3/6/01 at 12:27 PM VBra676539@aol.com wrote:

>Alec,
>
>Thanks, I'll try it out at work, where we have a sheet metal shop and 
>journeymen who've been there, done that. I still have to get the shaft 
>married to the plane, but there's got to be a way. I'll skip the oil unless I 
>get into weight problems. Ours just had weep holes top and bottom, flooded 
>for diving and drained on your tennis shoes afterwards. Never a problem. If 
>you do this again, try the side plates. Just sort of radiused up front and 
>rectangular with radiused corners at the trailing edge, maybe 4 inches high. 
>The engineers told us that the side plates were as important as the airfoil 
>shape.
>
>Vance