Ron

Some ramblings.

Tuft the section(s) and see what is happening. You can probably just
duct tape short lengths of knitting yarn to show air flow (smooth or
turbulent, etc.).

As I recall, you can then 'glue' VG's on temporarily and see the
difference in orientation of the yarn tufts.

There is probably some info that can be found on the Internet about
how the VG's work and where they should be placed to smooth out the
flow.

Might have to go to some NASA papers to get the info (your government
dollars at wok )

You might also design and make a smoke generator and blow smoke over
the section you are working with (instead of flying) to find the best
locations of VG's on your bird (and if they do you any good).

Interesting project. Lots of luck.

Big John


On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 03:37:20 GMT, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 21:27:21 -0600, Big John wrote:

There was a group (don't remember who, could have been NASA????)
sometime after the War who ran tests on the mustang wing and concluded
it was not laminar. Not sure now if this was from wind tunnel tests or
computer simulation? Also not sure what their object was, maybe just
too much time on their hands?

Then again, I've heard that it's very difficult to get true laminar flow
for *any* type of construction...at least in the real world. A bit of
dirt, a fuel cap, a small dent from a dropped tool, a few bugs splattered
on the leading edge....

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I'm considering goofing around with
some homemade VGs on my Fly Baby next year. Figured I buy a batch of 1/4 -
1/2" aluminum angle and cut up a batch. Anybody have any rules of thumb
regarding size, placement, stupidity of the idea, etc.?

Ron Wanttaja