By any chance do you mean that L= CL*1/2 rho*V>2? Cause it does.
>If what you said above were true, then the faster you went, the less total drag you'd produce, and the aircraft would just keep accelerating until it approached the speed of light! Congratulations, you've just invented perpetual motion and solved the universes energy crisis!!
Induced drag is one side of the story. On a typical light aircraft it reduces to near its minimum value at about 5deg A of A, and peaks at CLmax, which is to say stalling angle.<
NO because at the end of the day the airframe is pushing through air and there will always be a terminal velocity for given power. Hence even a sky diver will hit a terminal velocity. As you know the higher in the atmosphere the faster you go.
>If the BEST rate of climb is zero, flying any other speed produces a descent.<
Yes if you have 90 kts and blue line and you are only staying level any reduction in the angle of attack will result in an initial decent and an increase in airspeed as Kinetic energy comes into play and assists the energy produced from the engine. But then as airspeed increases the lift increases for a reduced angle of attack and the descent rate will reduce until as the airspeed increases further you will finally achieve level flight at single engine cruise speed.
The same as pushing a wooden spoon through custard and water and a wooden spoon isnt a wing and neither is the sky diver.
I am fully aware of other forms of drag and your theories on how blue line is calculated for single engine climb. But as you know only too well at best lighttwins do not climb very well and at worst dont at all, You are also very close in speed to where if you get below blue line the drag increases dramatically and that is the killer.
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 30th May 2008 at 17:33.