REFLECTOR: Lower winglets

[Jim Sower]

The design of the winglets comes to us pretty much unaltered from the 
Long-EZ.  There have been numerous such questions raised and explored in 
the EZ community over the past 25 yrs.  It's interesting to note that 
none have improved upon Burt's original design.  Some have ended 
tragically.  Most degraded performance and/or safety and reliability.  
If you know why Burt designed them the way he did, and have the 
background to put forward an aerodynamically sound rationale for 
changing the design, by all means do it.  Report your results with 
appropriate supporting documentation.  OTOH, brain farts in this area of 
design manipulation are rarely useful and are pursued at our peril.  
Perhaps if you were to start with the standard design, thoroughly test 
the performance (particularly low speed) and then reverse them and do 
another test program, we could all benefit from your work.
My .02  ....  Jim S.

>I was preparing to install my lower winglets yesterday, and was thinking
>about installing them "backwards", so they push the air inboard on the
>bottom of the wingtip, rather than outboard.  This would be accomplished by
>installing the left lower winglet under the right wingtip, and vice-versa.
>Although this theoretically has the potential to (very slightly) reduce the
>induced drag, it would not look as good, since the lower and upper winglets
>would not line up with each other, and the lower winglet would not fair in
>below the rudder.  On the other hand, the trailing edge of the lower winglet
>would be inboard of the rudder, so it could be fitted tightly to the wing
>without interfering with the motion of the rudder.  Has anyone done this?
>
>I suspect that the lower winglets may be so short as to have only a tiny
>effect due to their "airfoil" shape.  Thus, it may not make any measurable
>difference.  However, I'm one of those oddball "form follows function" guys
>who would rather have a plane that looks a little wierd than accept less
>than "optimal" design.
>
>You may fire when ready!
>
>Keith Hallsten
>
>
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