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Old 05-13-2012, 02:38 AM   #6 (permalink)
hawk2100n
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I can tell you that these designs of aircraft are far from ideal and that there is probably separated flow on them towards the point. You would have to look at the local Reynolds number and put them in a tunnel to see. I would guess that flow around them is far from perfect, especially with the state of aero research then.

You can tell a lot about an aircraft by looking at it closely. On some aircraft, you can see where the flow is expected to become turbulent by the rivets. Laminar flow has smooth rivets due to the thinness of the boundary layer but after the switch the structure will use stronger and cheaper raised rivets because they still reside within the boundary layer and have almost no effect on drag.

Generally lower speeds mean more attached flow at a receding surface. Also, you can think of detached flow at a rear window of a car almost exactly the same as a stall. In both cases the flow detaches from the surface and drag increases significantly. Except the car doesn't loose lift and fall out of the sky.
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