Retrofitting winglets to existing planes seems to happen all the time... in the glider world. A colleague of mine owns a glider that she recently upgraded that way. There seems to be kits readily available for that, and glider pilots are very enthusiastic about them. Another thing they are crazy about is Mylar tape seal, intended to seal the gap between the control surfaces and the wing.
Now, I really can't tell whether these things work, owner's opinions are too biased to be considered. But they sure look modern, and maybe that's enough! Serge Vidal KR2 ZS-WEC Tunis, Tunisia -----Original Message----- From: krnet-boun...@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-boun...@mylist.net]On Behalf Of Mark Langford Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 3:09 PM To: KR builders and pilots Subject: Re: KR>Re: vertical winglets John Martindale wrote: > Aye Mark, are you in the mood for an aerodynamic debate? :-) Nope, not at all. I don't know diddly about aerodynamics, so it would be a lopsided debate. I just threw out the only tidbit I remember about winglets. I've seen various formulas for making them, and they have lots of variables. It takes about 5 minutes to sand a Hoerner tip onto a wing. It probably takes a lot more time and experimentation to get winglets set up properly. But I'd be the last to stand in your way if that's what you want to do to your KR. What I'd like to see is winglets retrofitted to an existing plane, and then report back on the differences in all flight regimes. I doubt the improvements would be worth the time expended, but you guys are more than welcome to prove me wrong... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL N56ML "at" hiwaay.net see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford _______________________________________________ see KRnet list details at http://www.krnet.org/instructions.html
