Archive for the ‘ nasa ’ Category

Rutan Proteus photo collection

NASA has nice photo collection. If you like the looks of the Proteus (in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful aircraft ever done), have a look:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/Proteus/index.html

PRELIMINARY AERODYNAMIC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR ADVANCED LAMINAR FLOW AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATIONS

NASA TP PRELIMINARY AERODYNAMIC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR ADVANCED LAMINAR FLOW AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATIONS can be found from the following link. I found it quite interesting.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19880014362_1988014362.pdf

Wing droops on laminar flow section

If you have wondered why Cirrus has the discontinuity on the wings. This may answer to that to some extent. I have not found any factual information about the airfoil section used on the Cirrus other than that it is a natural laminar flow section. Cirrus VK-30 used the Jeff Viken NLF414F airfoil. I don’t know if the SR20/SR22 uses the same airfoil or a different NLF section.

Anyway in this NASA tech paper it is explained how the stall resistance can be made better with the wing droop. The wing droop on the NASA test C210 actually indeed resembles the discontinuity on the Cirrus SR20/SR22 wing. Please have a look:
Wind tunnel results of the low-speed NLF(1)-0414F airfoil

Notable thing is that the Vmax-probe did not have this wing droop or any other means to prevent tip stall. And it crashed on landing possibly according to NTSB report and Bruce Carmichael’s book, because of unfavorable stalling charasteristics at low Re of the airfoil caused a hard landing (which the pilot did not survive). NLF414F is not to be used without some means to prevent tip stall and to soften the otherwise very sharp stall at low Re.

>Wing droops on laminar flow section

>If you have wondered why Cirrus has the discontinuity on the wings. This may answer to that to some extent. I have not found any factual information about the airfoil section used on the Cirrus other than that it is a natural laminar flow section. Cirrus VK-30 used the Jeff Viken NLF414F airfoil. I don’t know if the SR20/SR22 uses the same airfoil or a different NLF section.

Anyway in this NASA tech paper it is explained how the stall resistance can be made better with the wing droop. The wing droop on the NASA test C210 actually indeed resembles the discontinuity on the Cirrus SR20/SR22 wing. Please have a look:
Wind tunnel results of the low-speed NLF(1)-0414F airfoil

Notable thing is that the Vmax-probe did not have this wing droop or any other means to prevent tip stall. And it crashed on landing possibly according to NTSB report and Bruce Carmichael’s book, because of unfavorable stalling charasteristics at low Re of the airfoil caused a hard landing (which the pilot did not survive). NLF414F is not to be used without some means to prevent tip stall and to soften the otherwise very sharp stall at low Re.

A Lancair builder has collected a list of links to tech papers, e.g. NLF215F

Link:

Interesting technical papers

There is link to the NLF215F airfoil tech paper. It was particularly interesting. Now I understood the philosophy of the profile – I was always wondering, why this profile has the low drag bucket at so high Cl (around 0.5) rather than what is realized in cruise with small aircraft (up to 0.2). But, it seems, that this airfoil is designed to be used with -10 degrees flaps. With those, the low drag bucket gets into the cruise area. Heureka.

Here is a direct link to the paper:
http://www.n91cz.com/Interesting_Technical_Reports/NASA-81-tp1865.pdf

>A Lancair builder has collected a list of links to tech papers, e.g. NLF215F

>Link:

Interesting technical papers

There is link to the NLF215F airfoil tech paper. It was particularly interesting. Now I understood the philosophy of the profile – I was always wondering, why this profile has the low drag bucket at so high Cl (around 0.5) rather than what is realized in cruise with small aircraft (up to 0.2). But, it seems, that this airfoil is designed to be used with -10 degrees flaps. With those, the low drag bucket gets into the cruise area. Heureka.

Here is a direct link to the paper:
http://www.n91cz.com/Interesting_Technical_Reports/NASA-81-tp1865.pdf

Interesting NASA ebook: Concept to Reality

Here is a link to the book:

Concept to Reality

I find it quite interesting.

>Interesting NASA ebook: Concept to Reality

>Here is a link to the book:

Concept to Reality

I find it quite interesting.