Re: PHYS-L: is Circulation theory "wrong" ????

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Sun, 17 Jan 1999, Herb Schulz wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> Imagine a VERY LONG wing passing through the air and look at the motion of
> the air near the center.

Hey, I think my mental model has improved, because I never before saw the
flaw in the above.

I've heard that irplanes fly by "ground effect" whenever they are within a
wingspan or less above the earth.  The "2D world" model is a description
of ground-effect flight.  Therefor it applies whenever the wingspan of an
aircraft is lots longer than the altitude of flight.  To make an airplane
"obey" the 2D model, simply make its wingspan longer than the altitude of
flight.  Simple, no?  And conversely, if you wish to make the 2D model
fail, simply make the wingspan far smaller than the altitude of flight,
and the craft will be flying only because it is flinging vortex tubes
downwards, vortex tubes which constrain a particular mass of air.


((((((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA   206-781-3320          freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L