The damndest thing flew overhead yesterday......

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:47 am

That looks pretty low :shock:

Jack the instigator

Rogue · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:53 am

Is that really "White Lightning" or the shape-shifter made of Mercury from the Terminator movie?

J/K, That is Beautiful! It certainly looks liquid.

Mudge · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:31 am

What can I say? Another P-38 in the air. No need for Viagra? :shock:

Mudge the excitable :roll:

ps...Steve must have about a gazillion flight hours.

Cindy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:48 am

There was mention made on Saturday at our volunteer meeting that Steve was going to fly 2 - yes folks - 2 new P-38s this week. One in TX and another one (don't recall where). If I hear any updates on Saturday, I'll let ya'll know

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3331

Mudge wrote:

ps...Steve must have about a gazillion flight hours.

Yes, it's amazing that he gets all that time off from his airline job! :wink:

Nice to see that the P-38's back in the air, thanks for the photo Gary. Perhaps the other one due to fly this week is Tom Blair's in Florida?

Mudge · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:41 am

Quote:

Yes, it's amazing that he gets all that time off from his airline job! :wink:

Good lord...you remember that? :shock:

You gotta' let me up sometime!

Mudge the chagrined :oops:

The Inspector · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:41 pm

picking up the smooth vs. roughened thread from page 2, several years ago, Boeing gave the University of Washington rowing team some mylar tape that had teeny little triangles cut out of it to try on their 8 man shell, the U tested it and noticed an improvement in the acceleration in the boat so they took it to the NCAA board for a ruling, the NCAA determined it constituted an unfair advantage and disallowed it from competetion forever!
If you think about it, except for certain species of fish, everyone of them has scales that have teeny little triangular voids where the scales overlap and they've been swimming just fine for gazillions of years. With induction manifolds, if you run an 'tunnel ram' style long intake, you get better performance and fewer hickups if you leave in whats called a 'reversion spike or ramp' that juts out into the inbound airstream facing the high spot towards the valves. This breaks the boundry layer effect.
Boeing purposely leaves their exteriors a bit dimpled from fasteners and tear stoppers to promote boundry layer separation which makes the aircraft more efficient, think about that the next time you see a 'polished tube' Gulfstream 5-

mtpopejoy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:53 pm

Thats fascinating. Thanks for the edumacation.
Regards,
Mark

ZRX61 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:16 am **Posts:** 2308

mazdaP5 wrote:

They own a Grumman Albatross as well, I saw it fly this weekend at the air race.

Where did it finish? :wink:

51fixer · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:02 pm

Cindy wrote:

There was mention made on Saturday at our volunteer meeting that Steve was going to fly 2 - yes folks - 2 new P-38s this week. One in TX and another one (don't recall where). If I hear any updates on Saturday, I'll let ya'll know

The other one might be in FLA.
Rich

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

The Inspector wrote:

picking up the smooth vs. roughened thread from page 2, several years ago, Boeing gave the University of Washington rowing team some mylar tape that had teeny little triangles cut out of it to try on their 8 man shell, the U tested it and noticed an improvement in the acceleration in the boat so they took it to the NCAA board for a ruling, the NCAA determined it constituted an unfair advantage and disallowed it from competetion forever!

Are you thinking of "Riblets"?

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/new ... blets.html

sdennison · **Posted:** Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:32 pm

The Inspector wrote:

picking up the smooth vs. roughened thread from page 2, several years ago, Boeing gave the University of Washington rowing team some mylar tape that had teeny little triangles cut out of it to try on their 8 man shell, the U tested it and noticed an improvement in the acceleration in the boat so they took it to the NCAA board for a ruling, the NCAA determined it constituted an unfair advantage and disallowed it from competetion forever!
If you think about it, except for certain species of fish, everyone of them has scales that have teeny little triangular voids where the scales overlap and they've been swimming just fine for gazillions of years. With induction manifolds, if you run an 'tunnel ram' style long intake, you get better performance and fewer hickups if you leave in whats called a 'reversion spike or ramp' that juts out into the inbound airstream facing the high spot towards the valves. This breaks the boundry layer effect.
Boeing purposely leaves their exteriors a bit dimpled from fasteners and tear stoppers to promote boundry layer separation which makes the aircraft more efficient, think about that the next time you see a 'polished tube' Gulfstream 5-

Bingo! That's what I was talking about. I have seen it in the micro world of race engine development but always wondered if it had a significant effect on the macro of a full scale aircraft. Air is an intriguing phenomenon.

Dan K · **Posted:** Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:02 am

bdk wrote:

Are you thinking of "Riblets"?

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/new ... blets.html

So NASA says I can reduce the airflow friction on my car by 8% by slapping on some riblets.

Seems a little drastic, but if I can save at the pump... :wink:

warbird1 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:25 pm **Posts:** 2760

51fixer wrote:

Cindy wrote:

There was mention made on Saturday at our volunteer meeting that Steve was going to fly 2 - yes folks - 2 new P-38s this week. One in TX and another one (don't recall where). If I hear any updates on Saturday, I'll let ya'll know

The other one might be in FLA.
Rich

It has to be in Florida. There are no other known P-38 projects that are in restoration to fly any time soon. Unless there is a "secret"restoration out there, it has to be the former Lone Star Museum's "Putt Putt Maru" down in Kissimmee.

airnutz · **Posted:** Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:38 am

The Inspector wrote:

With induction manifolds, if you run an 'tunnel ram' style long intake, you get better performance and fewer hickups if you leave in whats called a 'reversion spike or ramp' that juts out into the inbound airstream facing the high spot towards the valves. This breaks the boundry layer effect.

Ahhh..a chapter or 2 out of David Vizards book, "How to Modify the Ford SOHC"..one of my bibles on
the shelf!

Interesting that you mentioned "the hickups" Inspector. At the time I was tuned in to him we were
using sidedraft Webers...Hitachi-SU's etc...but they inducted straight into the head. At certain points
in acceleration they would fall flat-on-their-face. The challenge was to manage around about this little picadillo.... :wink:

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The damndest thing flew overhead yesterday......

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