Quote:
Originally Posted by MobilOne
Along he same line, I remember reading, a long time ago, that during WWII, the Germans, flying from somewhere in Europe, (Germany or Spain) had scheduled passenger flights between Germany and Buenos Aires using the Condor passenger plane. The pilot told how they flew 25 feet above the ocean with the engines throttled back and covered great distances that way.
That being said, I see no way that the "ground effect" has anything to do with a golfball unless it is flyng about 1 inch off the ground.
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Harking back a lot of years to my aerodynamics lessons in uni and when I learned to fly, ground effect is primarily an interaction between a lifting body and a flat surface below it, and is also somewhat related to wingtip vortices. In the context of cars on roads it is somewhat an irrelevancy unless you are looking to generate downforce or lift in significant quantities. Given that fuel economy is the main agenda item here, ground effect will not have any significant influence either way.
Simon