Originally Posted by
pstaney
Don't understand this wingspan thing. Glider with huge wingspan gives small induced drag and little vortices. These little vortices start to diminish at 50 plus feet above ground?
An F104 with short wings and large induced drag and large vortices do not have ground interaction until a much lower altitude AGL than a glider?
Mr. XPMORTEN do you have some ideas?
Stan
Could it be that a glider with huge wingspan gives vortices that are weak (small peak airspeed) but nevertheless huge? Whereas a F104 or Concorde creates powerful vortices that are small?
Does the diameter of the wingtip vortices scale with the span of the wings, or with the chord of the wings? That is, in case of a glider, are the vortices concentrated in small volume around the tracks of the wingtips while the long wing in between leaves the air undisturbed? Or does the circulation of the vortices continue without much weakening compared to peak speeds to the middle of the airplane?