[Fairings-Etc]

A week of so ago, rgmwa had a post about a -6 builder who went faster after he took the after-market wing root fairings off. I have several questions. Who was this mysterious -6 builder with the slow wing roots? Who built the fairings" Was there an actual test or was this an opinion? If they were tested, how was the test conducted: power setting? airspeed? altitude and temperature? The answers to these many questions would assist me in supplying a response. Bob at Fairings-Etc ([email protected] or www.fairings-etc.com.

 

[dhammer]

Not and engineer but --

All the transport category jets I deal with have fairings that meet the fuselage in a sharp 90 degree angle. Companies like Gulfstream have spent millions on drag reduction and that is what works best for them.

There may be a big difference between 180 kts and 500 kts, but my guess is the guy with the 6 discovered the same. What looks aerodynamic sometimes isn't.

Take it FWIW.

Don

 

[rgmwa]

A week of so ago, rgmwa had a post about a -6 builder who went faster after he took the after-market wing root fairings off. I have several questions. Who was this mysterious -6 builder with the slow wing roots? Who built the fairings" Was there an actual test or was this an opinion? If they were tested, how was the test conducted: power setting? airspeed? altitude and temperature? The answers to these many questions would assist me in supplying a response. Bob at Fairings-Etc ([email protected] or www.fairings-etc.com.

The post is here on VAF somewhere, so you can probably find it with a search. He wasn't the builder but purchased the plane with the fairings already installed. His plane wasn't meeting Vans performance figures so he set about cleaning it up and took the fairings off. He didn't say what brand they were, but as far as I can recall he quoted something like 5-6 kts speed increase after he removed them. Were his tests scientific? I don't know. Nor do I have anything against fairings. They look nice, and if they make the plane go faster, that's great. If they slow it down, then maybe not so good.