On Sunday, June 11, 2017 at 10:38:22 PM UTC-7, Bret Hess wrote:
Hi, we see lots of mylar gap seals and read lots of discussion of them. Does anyone know of an engineering study that quantifies their effect on sailplane wings or other wings? Nothing pops up quickly in Google. I'm wondering how much science there is to this practice.

I'm hoping for more than anecdotal comments. Saying that top racers all use them doesn't tell us much because so do almost everyone.

I think the answer depends not only on the airfoil, but also on how you fly.. Sealing will help more if you spend a larger percentage of time at slow speeds where parasitic drag predominates.

Tom