Quote:
Originally Posted by Zedman
Spoilers look cool but dont really work, when was the last disscusion you saw regarding wing angles on a car doing under 50 mph ?
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That's not correct. A light aircraft can take off at around 50mph with a small wing. You can't consider jets at all, they are designed totally differently. Firstly have large swept or delta wings, so that the sweep delays the critical mach number. The aerofoil is much thinner, as it's designed to be efficient during cruise at 500mph, not to take off at 50mph. The reason people think gliders wings are so big is because of the span. The truth is, they aren't big. They have a very small chord, to give a large aspect ratio, it's more efficient which is important in the unpowered world.
Another good example is could be my RC airplane that weighs around 4kg (big beast) and that can take off at just 10-15 mph, on a wing smaller then 2m span. A good way to see just how strong airflow is by just sticking your hand out of a car window when you're travelling 30-40mph and feel the resistance, it's mad.
Formula 1 cars don't use spoilers, so I'm not sure how to comment on that. But even at low speed aerodynamics is important. In 1/18th scale classes where some corners are taken at speed, it's amazing the effect it has. In in rallycross, if you loose a wing you certainly notice the difference in handling on tracks with fast! However for 1/10th off-road, we could be talking too slow.