Re: What do your ships look like?

Niko writes:
>  The wings of most modern jet planes (and pracically ALL jet fighters)

> are there to keep the ailerons and flaps further away from the body of

> the plane, and give space for weapon-stoage (look at a Hornet or a 
> Fishbed. How long do you think they would glide with the engine turned
off?).
>  It's the engine power that keeps them up there. Of course,
streamlining 
> is a good idea to keep things from ripping off at high speeds (such as

> might be encountered during re-entry).
>	I got a good lesson about airplane aerodynamics from a very
tall, 
> very... well-shaped blond in a body-sock, who just happened to be a
jet 
> engineer... Never believed the blond-jokes after that...

I may not be a jet engineer (I don't even play one on TV) but
I believe the wings provide a more critical role than you describe.
Wings translate the horizontal component of thrust from the engine
into a vertical component called lift. Without wings to provide lift
planes could not maintain altitude. The only other alternative would
be to fly at a very steep angle of attack, allowing the thrust from the 
engine to provide a force vector in the vertical direction. Such a high
angle of attack produces excessive drag and is inefficient. Wings are
the more efficient method for translating thrust to lift.

Course I look like hell in a body-sock, so there is little incentive
to beleive me! B-)

Marty

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#	      Martin Connell		 Northern New Jersey, USA	
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