In article ,
Ernest Christley wrote:

Charlie Springer wrote:
On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:31:43 -0700, wrote
(in article . com):


Here's some news that recently came out:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7867

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1439827.htm

Apparently, soundwaves can help airflow stay near the wing and increase
lift. This can help smaller aircraft to avoid stalling at lower
airspeeds. Is this a technology that could be usefully applied to
existing small aircraft? Or would it require some totally new design
thinking?

I'll just say I'm skeptical.

No need to be skeptical on this on Charlie. The technique will work.
Unfortunately, the five pounds of high-maintainence, active equipment
can be replaced with a few ounzes of turbulator strips.

I read one of the NASA reports, done YEARS ago, on the Larc website.
They used the same techique, using sound waves to re-energize the
boundary layer. Pointless was their conclusion if I remember correctly.

Kinda makes you wonder if they used a particular kind of "noisy" sound
wave, or simple shapes like sine waves.

It'd be really funny if it turned out to work with random or
less-patterned noise, and they missed it because they were too
organized...

--
I don't have a lifestyle.
I have a lifeCSS.