The shocking truth about speed or, Dustflyer finally gets a taste of reality!
jettstarblue,
Well, I'm not sure whether deltas are necessarily all that draggy, all things considered. Generally, compared to a more conventional wing, for a given amount of lift, a delta wing is probably draggier. In this case, though, going with a delta wing allows the plane to be essentially a flying wing, which is a fairly low drag configuration. It seems like one of the bigger fundamental drawbacks, in terms of drag, is the wetted surface, which is pretty big for Whiplash, Diamond Dust, etc. One answer is a smaller delta, but that would degrade turning, which seems to be excellent for these planes. At high speed, for the same wetted surface, I don't think the delta is that bad, but I could be missing something. I do agree that the 200 mph claims are a lot like the claims of radio failure as a cause of crashes: not very likely.
banktoturn