Alan Baker wrote:

In article . net,
Richard Lamb wrote:


This has all been very interesting, but there is a basic assumption
that seems to be glossed over.

I was thinking, that to really get anything out of all this,
shut the engine off!

Everybody has been _assumin'_ straight and level flight.
I suppose that's ok for academic discussion, but for learnin'
aerodynamics, let's just assume the engine quit and take it
from there.

L / D

Just a thought...


Richard


It doesn't really make any difference.

In a constant glide, the aircraft now does have momentum with respect to
the earth, but it is *still* incurring the same forces.

Right.

But now we might actually get something from the discussion.

Like how much power is actually required for S&L?

Effects of speed on glide angle?

And, what happens when you get a wee bit too slow?

Or, if that's too boring...

What happens to the boundary layer?
Is it ticklish?

And what about those long and short bubbles?