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Old 05-24-2002 | 09:44 AM
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From: CamborneCornwall, UNITED KINGDOM
Default Rough or Smooth?

As far as i've heard this rough surface has been tried on fins of passenger planes, its based on sharks skin, and on this scale it easy to produce.
the benifits when you come down to models are less, you cant make that surface, the closest you could get is a fabric film. getting back to golf balls, they try hundreds of diffrent patterns and you'd never be able to do this on planes.
the conclusion was:
Yes, its possible, yes, it would make a difrence under test conditions. but your racing, the advantage it would give you could be taken away just by making a turn a fraction of a second to late or even the drag off a aileron if you correct something. it wasnt worth it, also a smooth surface is much easier to acheive than the type of surface needed.

Something thats crossed my mind is steps like on boat hulls, you create a litte bit of turbelence, and it seperates the air from the fuz. i know some hi-tec design gliders have steps on the aerofoil section to do the same thing. just carried that thought on.... if you seperated the air from around the control surface when its in netural posistion, it couldnt flutter, but as soon as you moved it, it would meet the flowing air and work... something to think about.