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Old 12-25-2004 | 02:06 PM
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rmh
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Default RE: Scaling down airfoils

I do understand that -
I should say that -on a model such as these overloaded scale warbirds tend to be - the ONLY real difference in performance I have found-- wingloading -
sure-- speed increases of only a tiny bit fixes lots of weight problems ( v squared times weight )
but the landing - consider the landing speeds
add flaps OR the best airfoil in the world - when that pride and joy rotates in for a 3 point or a wheel landing - the slower the touch down speed - the less likely it is to shed the entire undercarriage - especially on grass fields .
If all one really wants is straffing run performance - pile on the weight - -just use a hard surface runway - 1000 ft long.
I know not everyone likes aerobatics - a loop is wild stuff for some setups . But power off performance is a reality of flying and no amount of trick airfoil design will fix that.