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Old 29th March 2005 | 07:53
  #25 (permalink)  
Dick Whittingham
 
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 461
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From: Bristol
The only small point that separates us is edurance speed for powered aircraft. If you had the same airframes, one powered by a jet and one by a prop, the jet would fly at Vmd for endurance, the prop at Vmp.

This is only because fuel flow in a prop setup is proportional to the power delivered by the engine, not the thrust delivered by the propeller, for prop efficiency has intervened. In the jet, fuel flow is proportional to thrust produced and delivered, so you try to get minimum thrust required, ie. min drag in level flight.

I used to own part of an Eagle, and always thought I knew what Howard Huges must have felt like in his monster wooden flying boat - all creaking and groaning around you!

Live long and prosper

Dick W
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