Air Tabs
Looking at AD regarding a product called AirTabs. Claims to improve handling and gas milage. Has anyone used this product and how did it live up to its hype. I have not seen any on RVs or tractor trai...
Forum Discussion
rgatijnet1 wrote:MountainAir05 wrote:
Had them on Military aircraft that I worked on but can see how you are going to get that fast on a land Vehicle.
I don't know of too many vortec generators on any aircraft that are designed for high speed. Most are designed to improve the low speed performance, such as decreasing the stall speed, or improving the lift, by improving the air flow over the wings.
rgatijnet1 wrote:MountainAir05 wrote:
FWiW although shaped differently there are vortice generators below the window of a B727, B737 to keep the boundary layer attached to lower the noise in the cockpit and other places to keep boundary layer attached at higher angle of attack.
I had an Aero Engineering friend who did development test in a wind tunnel for the fairrings on top of OTR trucks some 40 years ago now. They were able to quantify the savings by actual research with the loses for crosswinds and other factors.IIRC the average crosswind is about 6kts.
Which is what bothers me about Air Tabs. While NASA has explored the shape, I find no research done to quantify and confirm all the anecdotal evidence in use. A wind tunnel and scientific method is all that is required. If they do what they say you can be assured they would be on every commercial piece of equipment. 2-4% fuel savings is not chicken feed in that discussion.
IMHO
