Wing profiles

[Christopher Crowe]

Has anyone compiled the wing profiles being used in the light formula car catagories?

Funny how the preferred profiles seem to change over the years... and yet the air does not change...

Anyway, if anyone has any of the wing profiles employed on the basically successful cars(both front and rear) we could really use the data.

Thanks,

Chris Crowe

[Neil_Roberts]

Has anyone compiled the wing profiles being used in the light formula car catagories?

Airfoil design is a very deep subject, with considerable potential for performance advantages in the selection or development of airfoils that are optimized for the operating conditions. So, that sort of information may not be available from the manufacturer. However, it's not hard to reverse engineer the airfoil of an existing wing.

Here are some links that may be helpful:

http://www.flyingfoam.com/Airfoil-Help.html
http://www.amazon.com/Airfoil-Select.../dp/7770045258
http://faculty.dwc.edu/sadraey/Chapt...g%20Design.pdf
http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/a..._database.html

For a more fundamental look into what airflow can do for you, I highly recommend this:

www.scribd.com/doc/35866801/Hoerner-Fluid-Dynamic-Drag-1985

[Rick Kirchner]

Optimization being the key word here. I'd bet in the past therre was a lot of extrapolation from pro series where folks could afford the aero work - and then tried to scale it to more junior formulae. Then there's the whole bit about making the software prediction match real-world, plus a third dimension - that now people have the technology to make airfoils at a higher level of precision (needed for some of the more interesting airfoil designs) that could not be rendered very well at small scale using ribs and aluminum rivited to them.

[Purple Frog]

Old designs, but thought by many to still be effective. look at the front wings on 1998 Tattus, and 1998 VD F2000 cars.

The efficiency of the wings many times has a lot to do with where they are placed relative to the ground and other parts of the car in motion.

Brandon Dixon's FB takes one branch on the knowledge tree. RFR takes another.

The Citation front wings use a chord about 12"-14" deep. Others use shorter chords with flaps. YMMV

And then there are end-plate designs that attempt to manage the air around the front tires...

[Neil_Roberts]

Airfoil design and wing design are two different things, although there are some interactions between them. An airfoil is just a 2 dimensional side view cross section of a wing.

[JohnPaul]

as James Lee once told me "they all work the same" the key is to know when you need more or less downforce and trim accordingly

[Christopher Crowe]

Given the massive variance in the profiles of the wings being successfully used... I think what James Lee had to say is just about right.

Thanks to everyone for the info!

[JohnPaul]

Yeah, he's good like that.