I talked to a hot shot NASA Aeronautical Engineer some years back who had been involved heavily in studying and testing different wing shapes on real airplanes. He said if your airplane design would not exceed 250 miles per hour that tapering a wing might look cool but it gained you absolutely nothing. He said you may as well make it easy on yourself and build a CONSTANT CHORD WING AIRPLANE. While we can dream and wish, guys like him actually had our tax dollars and lots of people on their teams to actually go and do this testing. I know why all the early models if not all Vans aircraft models have a rectangular constant chord wing, easy to make parts!
He also talked about drag in the engine compartment. I do not remember the percentage now but the largest drag on a piston powered airplane, probably all others as well is in the engine compartment. Figure out a way to move the engine cooling air through the engine compartment less draggy and more efficiently and you will use less fuel for same speed or go faster. Larry Howell ________________________________
