Originally Posted by Heli1
...first strake mod was on the Westland Sea King during the Falklands Conflict in 1982 when the Mk 4 Commando version was rush-fitted with them.
Considering that the skin in a SeaKing tail boom is about 1mm thick, and Bell are concerned about stresses in their tailbooms, i'm amazed this didn't cause any problems. If strakes are so effective, then why not just design an aerofoil section tailboom? My limited understanding is that the flow is so chaotic (particularly entering translational flight) that any benefit would be at best unpredictable, and at worst uncontrolable.
Originally Posted by Spinwing
... 412 is VERY twitchy when exposed to a right (turbulent) crosswind ... haveing read the BLR blurb on their website I would have thought the stresses with their kit fitted would have been reduced not increased!
Haven't seen the website, but it depends on how strake is fitted. The global stresses
may go down, but there could be local stress peaks which exceed the recommended fatigue life stress. The strake might introduce a stiffness discontinuity into an otherwise constant stiffness region. I know from experience how quickly local stress peaks lead to cracks.
Mart