On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 06:50:15 +1100, "d&tm"
wrote in
::


Wont the best glide speed also keep you in the air the longest?

I believe 'best glide' speed is ebullient to maximum L/D speed which
will provide the maximum distance obtainable (in still air) for a
given AGL altitude.

if not what speed will?

As Maule Driver stated in Message-ID:
, 'minimum sink speed'
will yield the maximum time aloft (in still air or not) for a given
AGL altitude.

Both speeds are easily found if you have a polar diagram of aircraft
(airfoil) performance plotted on a grid with airspeed on the X axes
and vertical speed on the Y axes. There's an example here
http://www.afg.ethz.ch/Info/polaren.xls; click the 'Polar Chart' tab
at the bottom.