Van's Air Force

The definitive Van's Aircraft support community! Buying, building or flying an RV? Join our exclusive family of mentors and enthusiasts!

Wing root fairings?

Fenderbean

Well Known Member
I was YouTubing and looking at 10 videos and I ran across N990TR that had some really neat fairings and I was wondering if these were custom or a possible kit?

Cheers
 
Engineering data has shown that a ~90° intersection between the wing and fuselage is the most efficient on RV aircraft.

Rounding fairings may look "neat", but they aren't as efficient.
Short story from a few years ago:
I hate fiberglass work and was about to start on the fancy fiberglass wing root fairings on my Rocket. I happened by Vince’s place at Oshkosh and mentioned to him that I wished I could just use the standard Van’s rubber gap fillet at the wing root, but I didn’t want to give up any speed.
He asked me if I knew what “low drag” wing root fairings Dave Anders had on his -4…
 
I did fairings on a HRII similar to those on the RV10 in that video. Radius at the intersection was much tighter, the areas over and behind the flap were blended in similar to Mooney fairings to theoretically better blend turbulence between flap TE & fuselage.
Was a lot of work, looked pretty, but didn’t add much speed wise, maybe a knot or 2.
There are other ways to more easily add speed, I would pass on this unless you are going for the looks.
 
Using my highly technical DBR score. (DEAD BUG RATIO). I alway felt the Leading edge of the wing where it meets the fuselage needed a forward sweeping cuff at that location as there are more dead bugs at the wing fuselage intersection than anywhere else.

Agree that 90 deg is the most efficient for the span but 1200 hrs of dusty dirt flying show there is also a lot of turbulence where the Trailing Edge of the wing meets the rear fuselage.

So my wish list for Steve Smith is to design and CFD a "Forward Cuff" and a "Trailing Edge Fairing" that also covers the ugly boarding step/fuse location.
 
Thanks for the information, not related to the fairing topic but something that I have been wondering is why the aft equipment storage wall leading into the tail cone is designed with the almost roof like pattern vs just a flat piece of aluminum?
 
Thanks for the information, not related to the fairing topic but something that I have been wondering is why the aft equipment storage wall leading into the tail cone is designed with the almost roof like pattern vs just a flat piece of aluminum?
For stiffness. It is much more rigid than a simple flat panel.
 
Obviously not a -10 (the slider should be a dead giveaway😉), but the F1 does have wing root fairings that - if nothing else - give it some sex-appeal. My Aerodynamics courses were 45 years ago, but I do remember that the simple 90 degree intersection is pretty good - but the F1 fairings solve some appearance difficulties inherent to the design (the “step” between rear cockpit and tailcone where the flap joins in to cause mayhem….)) and add hours of allegedly enjoyable fiberglass finishing to the build process. The -8 flap fairing sort of does the same thing, and you only have to suffer with getting the metal to fit right. On the F1, the fiberglass forward wing/fuselage fairing also serves as a place to mount an air intake for cockpit ventilation, so I decided to keep the root fairings. But then, I am not planning on racing…..

IMG_8044.jpeg
 
Back
Top