At 04:50 PM 3/2/99 -0500, you wrote: >While working on the prop I noticed that all the bug guts were >on the back side of the prop. Now I would assume that a plane >traveling at 100 mph would run into some bugs on the front of >the prop, not the back. So the question is: Why are bugs on the >back and not the front? >
Hi, Jack. This isn't that dumb of a question. It does seem strange that the bugs would be on the back side. The reason is that airplane isn't pushing the prop, the prop is pulling the plane. The blade angle of attack is positive, and objects in the air are struck by the back side of the blade (or the leading edge). A good way to visualize it is to look at the spinning blades while the plane is stationary. The back side of the blade strikes the air. When flying, the same thing happens, because the forward movement of the plane is insignificant compared to the fast movement of the blades. But, if the prop was windmilling, the angle of attack of the blades WOULD be negative and bugs would hit the front of the blades. >I am only guess when I reason that since a prop is like a spinning >wing, high pressure air at the back of the prop pushes the little >critters to their death. No, the high pressure would push the bug away from the blade. It doesn't in this case because the inertia of the bug isn't overcome by the increased pressure. That's not a dumb question. Dumb questions are the ones like "is it safer to turn into the wind or away from the wind?" ...heh heh ---------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Dold ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://home.pacbell.net/sdold/ Say NO to useless over-quoting ----------------------------------------------------------------
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