Re: Airplane Drag

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

> For a pilot-oriented discussion of all this, check out
>   http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/how/htm/4forces.html

Pilot oriented is right -- the explanations are so convoluted that it
reminds me of a chemistry text.

I thank John and Brian for their posts -- they help but I am still confused
-- it may be simply that I am too old and senile to be wading through new
verbiage only to understand my son re stuff I otherwise would not give much
of a damn about.

If I understand the site correctly, the drag _does_ pass through a minimum
as airspeed increases -- and a so called  "induced drag" _does_ continue to
decrease with increasing airspeed.

Now if I could just figure out what "induced drag" is and what causes it,
maybe I could teach my kid a little physics. (:-)

But it looks like "induced drag" is one of those inventions engineers
(including chemists) invent when they don't understand how to do it correctly.

Mind you, physicists are not immune: we invent a coefficient of friction
when we have nothing else to do but wave our hands.

Comments???

TX

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen