RCU Forums - View Single Post - Do wrinkles in wing covering affect flight performance?
Old 06-20-2008, 06:26 AM
  #22  
da Rock
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Default RE: Do wrinkles in wing covering affect flight performance?

It's going to be impossible to predict how much effect wrinkles should have.

I have a number of excellent airfoil books that have references to the surface condition of the airfoil and it's effect on performance. Back during WWII the US did a bunch of work trying to get a clear picture on the problem. They wanted to see just how much or how little time they had to spend on that part of the manufacturing process. But they really did not go into surface imperfections that would actually equate to battle damaged surfaces. They only looked at what we would call smooth surfaces versus rough textured surfaces.

So there really isn't any scientific guidance for your question.

It is interesting to note that one of my books shows a rough surface test with Reynolds numbers that run into our range. And the L/D actually goes favorable for us. They didn't expand on it, however. I noticed that back in the 80s and did a little experimenting. It appeared to me that for the difference in Reynolds between the wing of a larger RC glider and it's horizontal tail, there was probably a benefit to covering the tail with a textured covering like SolarTex. And I tried using SolarTex on the wings aft the max thickness line. Never saw enough difference with that to draw any conclusions. ("conclusions" is not actually a good choice for what I was drawing...... w.a.g. is more correct )