"Dancing Fingers" wrote in message
...
Last night the Mythbusters put about a 2 inch layer of clay a a sedan
and drove it at 65 mph and recorded their mileage. They put dimples
in the clay, like a golf ball, and repeated the same test and got 11%
better mileage. This again begs the question why don't wings have
dimples, especially for STOL type aircrat, where you still have
laminar flow? Heck, hexagonal dimples might reflect radar better for
all I know?
For conversation
Chris

Because wings aren't shaped like golf balls or cars.

The dimples in a golf ball help reduce drag by making the boundry layer
turbulant which helps it flow just a little further around the back side
and reduce the area behind the ball where the air flow is seperated
(compared to a laminar boundry layer). Also, the dimples work only across a
limited range of Reynolds numbers (less than 3*10^5).

The airflow around a wing isn't generally seperated (except near a stall)
so it just ain't a gonna help.

I would question the results they got with the car as well, but that's just
me.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
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