So...about that plane on the treadmill...

"Richard Riley" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:06:30 -0500, "Peter Dohm"
wrote:

A "rolling road" gets rid of the boundry layer, and better simulates
what a race car will see on the track.

There was a lot of talk 30+ years ago about what a nice thing this would
be;
mainly to test the effectiveness of anti-lift devices for sports car
racing.


It's state of the art now. They said in the cars they're building the
ride hight is 1/4" in front, 3/4" in the rear, since they're testing
1/2 scale in the tunnel a boundry layer would make a huge difference.

Apparently the really, REALLY advanced tunnels in europe use a
stainless belt that can turn in relation to the wind, and they're
testing multiple cars at once to model drafting. Just the stainless
rolling road costs $10 million - before you build the rest of the
tunnel. Some even use a big air bearing under the belt so the full
weight of the car can rest on the wheels.

It's just as well that I got away from all that. I'd be really bummed that
I couldn't have one of my own to play with! g

And, just to keep it on topic, the only planes that could take off
from a treadmill are the Osprey and the Harrier.

C'mon Richard! I know that you know better than that. Remember that a
moving floor treadmill moves in lock-step with the air in the tunnel, and
that it does so even if the speeds can be offset and the moving floor angled
to simulate a surface wind condition.

Peter