Originally Posted by
PantLoad
I remember years ago....like 30 or 35 years ago....NASA was doing
a study about the effect of bugs on the leading edges of wings....
how the bugs affect lift. No kidding. Our tax dollars at work.
On highly laminar wings this has a major effect, actually.
The Piaggio p180 POH contains this text and reduced figures are available for performance calculations:
"This airplane is characterized by extensive natural laminar flow over the forward and main wings.
Insect debris, dirt in general, or rain may force the boundary layer to become turbulent prematurely and the performances are affected by the loss of laminar flow.
The extension of laminar flow as a function of surface contamination is very difficult to determine. However, loss of performance, substantiated by flight test data, ... are indicated if significant in each performance graph..."
Emphasis mine.