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Wingtip Mods To Early Mooneys


cliffy

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This is limited to "flat plate" wing tips.

Does anyone know if there has ever been any testing done on Mooneys by adding larger  "flat plate" end plates to these wings? 

The aerodynamics says it will reduce the wingtip vortices and reduce drag among other things.

Additionally, several years ago someone was playing with wing tips similar to Mooney style wings by using something that looked like a large

tube attached to the tip, in line with the airflow, claiming a 10% reduction in overall airplane drag. Anyone remember or know anything about this project?

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I think you will find anyone that has done wing tip design...

1) Stops the flow of air from the high pressure side to the low pressure side of the wing.

2) This improves the efficiency of the last 6-12” of Wing, significantly...

3) Adding Fancy Wing tips allows for more lift for the same length of wing...

4) When designing a new wing, it can be shortened to supply the lift of the old wing, providing less drag overall...

5) or provides a fancy place to hide lights and antennae... 

6) Adding a flat plate to the end of a flat tip should work to some extent.  Start by mounting some tell tales at the end of the wing and video what is happening now.

8) I would think a lot of the experimentals would be using this simple method if It really worked well...

I like the O's fancy wing tips.  Needs some LED lights to go with that...

Best regards,

-a-

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  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Hank said:

I have those on my C, but have always been told they are cosmetic only and do zero for aerodynamics. Anybody know?

Let me guess, you were told that by other C owners with flat wingtips jealous of swoopy tips? ;)

I had them on my C as well and am sure they were good for 5 knots. :huh:

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Flat plate wingtips reduce drag but add wetted surface area and add interference drag, which offsets the reduced tip drag. Similar to wing root fairings. We added the latter but not the former. Mostly because one looks cool and one does not. 

909EE7F4-7A1B-48AA-A960-872806551597.png

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