There have been various discussions about this I'm sure but I found this on the web and felt like sharing it.
To those who feel offended by this, tough luck
From: Bill Lais
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 14:56:06 EST
To: rickhave@juno.com, cavers@www.geek.com
Subject: Re: Bungee Wings: A Real Drag?
In a message dated 98-03-11 14:42:13 EST, you write:
Recently, myself and several engineering colleagues were performing wind
tunnel tests on a new airfoil, under design within our division at
Grumman Aerospace. Somehow the subject of technical diving and buoyancy
compensation systems came up. We got to talking about the drag profiles
on certain manufacturers brands of BCs and one of the guys suggested that
we run some actual aerodynamics tests. A couple of the engineers are big
time mixed gas wreck divers with lots of experience on deep wrecks such
as the Doria and Republic. They were touting the benefits of the OMS
bungeed wings and I was arguing that the Dive Rite wings provided a
vastly improved knife edge profile with far less drag.
A simple surface area calculation showed that the bungeed wings had an
area of over 12 square feet inflated. This is over 4 times the area of
the Dive Rite wings. The huge box like profile caused immense drag and
horrendous turbulence when we observed it in the wind tunnel. The bungee
cords caused massive vorticial eddies all along the wings. It was very
interesting to observe the colored smoke trails streaming in chaotic
cyclonic patterns around the brightly colored bungees. It was almost
psychedelic. These results were in stark contrast to the Dive Rite wings
which showed very little turbulence and almost hydrodynamic behavior such
that the wings probably generate lift when there is current flow across
them. Needless to say, the extra inflator assembly on the OMS wings
created marked disturbances in the laminar flow field of the trace smoke.
When the wings were in the collapsed state the turbulent patterns were
even more spectacular, clearly discrediting the myth that the bungees
reduce drag by supposedly decreasing the surface area.
After the tests there were no more arguments except about what other uses
these wings might be put to. One of the guys suggested we employ them as
portable cushions for homeless people, another suggestion involved using
them as toxic waste storage containers.
There was much discussion and speculation about the personality and
physical characteristics of the rocket scientist who had designed these
wings. I suspect that the same individual carries a fire extinguisher in
the front seat of his car along with the spare gas can.
Rick
Taken from frogkick.dk, this is NOT my own work.
To those who feel offended by this, tough luck
From: Bill Lais
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 14:56:06 EST
To: rickhave@juno.com, cavers@www.geek.com
Subject: Re: Bungee Wings: A Real Drag?
In a message dated 98-03-11 14:42:13 EST, you write:
Recently, myself and several engineering colleagues were performing wind
tunnel tests on a new airfoil, under design within our division at
Grumman Aerospace. Somehow the subject of technical diving and buoyancy
compensation systems came up. We got to talking about the drag profiles
on certain manufacturers brands of BCs and one of the guys suggested that
we run some actual aerodynamics tests. A couple of the engineers are big
time mixed gas wreck divers with lots of experience on deep wrecks such
as the Doria and Republic. They were touting the benefits of the OMS
bungeed wings and I was arguing that the Dive Rite wings provided a
vastly improved knife edge profile with far less drag.
A simple surface area calculation showed that the bungeed wings had an
area of over 12 square feet inflated. This is over 4 times the area of
the Dive Rite wings. The huge box like profile caused immense drag and
horrendous turbulence when we observed it in the wind tunnel. The bungee
cords caused massive vorticial eddies all along the wings. It was very
interesting to observe the colored smoke trails streaming in chaotic
cyclonic patterns around the brightly colored bungees. It was almost
psychedelic. These results were in stark contrast to the Dive Rite wings
which showed very little turbulence and almost hydrodynamic behavior such
that the wings probably generate lift when there is current flow across
them. Needless to say, the extra inflator assembly on the OMS wings
created marked disturbances in the laminar flow field of the trace smoke.
When the wings were in the collapsed state the turbulent patterns were
even more spectacular, clearly discrediting the myth that the bungees
reduce drag by supposedly decreasing the surface area.
After the tests there were no more arguments except about what other uses
these wings might be put to. One of the guys suggested we employ them as
portable cushions for homeless people, another suggestion involved using
them as toxic waste storage containers.
There was much discussion and speculation about the personality and
physical characteristics of the rocket scientist who had designed these
wings. I suspect that the same individual carries a fire extinguisher in
the front seat of his car along with the spare gas can.
Rick
Taken from frogkick.dk, this is NOT my own work.