Hello all,
I have been studying up on aerodynamics recently and something has been bothering me. I just can't get my head around the drag curve. I might just be getting caught up with definitions...
I understand the normal explanation that induced drag varies inversely with the square of TAS and Parasite drag varies directly with the square of parasite drag. I also read that the formula for parasite drag is Dp = Cd A q and the formula for induced drag is
k L^2/ 1/2 p V^2 S pi AR
Thus a wing with infinite aspect ratio also has no induced drag. Since the back side of the power curve is attributed to induced drag I wonder what does the power curve look like for a theoretical aircraft with an infinite aspect ratio wing look like. If the back side of the power curve is due to induced drag then theoretically there would be no back side. It seems more intuitive that drag would still increase as angle of attack is increased due to pressure drag and an effective increase in parasite area. Hope that I'm making sense. Can someone please clarify this for me.
J