various types of surface finish

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Ian Melville
Posts: 1001
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:21 pm

Post by Ian Melville » Sun May 08, 2011 10:56 am

The whole wing or part?

I assume you are refering to this stuff? http://www.raaltd.com/alu_stucco.htm

0.020 is the thinest I could find, but it is 3003 Aluminum. Is the skin structural?

Ian Melville
Posts: 1001
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:21 pm

Post by Ian Melville » Sun May 08, 2011 1:10 pm

I don't think that you would see much benefit, and I doubt you could build a sub 115Kg aircraft with this as a non-structural skin.

The only place I think it would make positive difference to airflow would be behind the max wing thickness. Underside is generally uncritical and should be low drag, like the leading edge (but is critical).

Assuming you managed to build the aircraft within SSDR spec, you would have to skin it both ways to prove a difference (two sets of wings?).
There are simpler ways of creating vortexes. Have a Google for turbulators on model aircraft

Did somebody sell you a job lot of the stuff? :D

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