Friday @ OSH
(Catching up; I have a guest in camp and that's cutting deeply into my available time for reflection.)
A decent, if damp night -- I slept in until well after a foggy sunrise, 6:30 or so. Breakfast out.
Did some airplane watching, then attended the forum on "Boundary layer Pumped Proplulsion" by Gerry Merrill. This was a technical forum, reporting on results of experiments that permit laminar boundary layer flow over the entire surface of a vehicle. Extended laminar flow is a big deal in aviation, because surfaces in laminar flow see 1/2 to 1/3 the drag that a turbulent boudary laer costs. His method, in ismplest terms, is to use an annular inlet surrounding the body at a chord position near where the flow turns turbulent, and suck the de-energized, higher pressure ar into a turbofan engine. Unlike the inlets on the F-16, P-51 and the like, the boundary layer air will form a large part of the inlet flow, and not contribte to flow instabilities for the engine. The higher pressure of the boundary layer air will also improve specific fuel efficiency for the engine. It gets more technical from there, but the basic Idea is to suck the stagnant air aft into the engine, and blow it away. This lowers the drag, Lower drag converts to greater fuel efficiiency or increased range in aircraft. His numbers make sense, and unlike a lot of radical ideas, Merrill has wind-tunnel and independant CFD validation of the concept. Cool stuff.
After the forum, over heard in a conversation with Mike Melvill; "Burt got some, Paul got some, but I got to keep most of them. I donated one to the Young Eagles auction last night. That M&M went for 4,700 dollars..."
Noodled around inshowplanes, just soaking up the ambiance...it's very comfortable for me here, I feel in my element. I stopped at the ERAU pavillion, and met a flight student named Pablo; we talked about the new Garmin G1000-equipped 172's that school is getting. We were sitting in one -- Pablo had been picked to be one of the people to take the new Skyhawk from Witchita to Daytona by way of Oshkosh. He was a very happy camper. I also met Jessica, one of the flight instructors. She was very friendly, and encouraged me to get checked out and current in the school planes, even though I'm not in the flight program. I was glad I stopped in.
Still noodling, I took a walk through the big display for "Flyboys", a WW1 flying movie, set to open in the fall. The makers have pt a lot of effort into authenticity, so I expect it'll be a must-see.
Zaug's lunch, more conversation, this time with an exhibitor. The main insight gleaned from that conversation was the issue of vendors who are percieved as valuable to the members being priced out of the show, and replaced with junk dealers who can survive on small margins. I don't know that I agree with everything that was said, but I certainly can't get the nametag I want here...
Another good conversation was one with a teacher from Oklahoma, trading tips and strategies for Youth outreach. We traded cards.
Dinner, and conversation with a camp guest rounded out the day. and then it was time to go to the movie (One Six Right) screening.
The movie was projected on one of the new Sony 4K players, to a packed house, It resonated with me, and perhaps a large part of the audience, who know the challenges and delights of small airports. And even here, a possible youth activity was shown -- a pedal-plane sized model of the airport painted on the asphalt...
I wrote my late-night meditation, as I am writing this one,on the dek of the vintage red barn; after, I walked back camp and crashed.
A decent, if damp night -- I slept in until well after a foggy sunrise, 6:30 or so. Breakfast out.
Did some airplane watching, then attended the forum on "Boundary layer Pumped Proplulsion" by Gerry Merrill. This was a technical forum, reporting on results of experiments that permit laminar boundary layer flow over the entire surface of a vehicle. Extended laminar flow is a big deal in aviation, because surfaces in laminar flow see 1/2 to 1/3 the drag that a turbulent boudary laer costs. His method, in ismplest terms, is to use an annular inlet surrounding the body at a chord position near where the flow turns turbulent, and suck the de-energized, higher pressure ar into a turbofan engine. Unlike the inlets on the F-16, P-51 and the like, the boundary layer air will form a large part of the inlet flow, and not contribte to flow instabilities for the engine. The higher pressure of the boundary layer air will also improve specific fuel efficiency for the engine. It gets more technical from there, but the basic Idea is to suck the stagnant air aft into the engine, and blow it away. This lowers the drag, Lower drag converts to greater fuel efficiiency or increased range in aircraft. His numbers make sense, and unlike a lot of radical ideas, Merrill has wind-tunnel and independant CFD validation of the concept. Cool stuff.
After the forum, over heard in a conversation with Mike Melvill; "Burt got some, Paul got some, but I got to keep most of them. I donated one to the Young Eagles auction last night. That M&M went for 4,700 dollars..."
Noodled around inshowplanes, just soaking up the ambiance...it's very comfortable for me here, I feel in my element. I stopped at the ERAU pavillion, and met a flight student named Pablo; we talked about the new Garmin G1000-equipped 172's that school is getting. We were sitting in one -- Pablo had been picked to be one of the people to take the new Skyhawk from Witchita to Daytona by way of Oshkosh. He was a very happy camper. I also met Jessica, one of the flight instructors. She was very friendly, and encouraged me to get checked out and current in the school planes, even though I'm not in the flight program. I was glad I stopped in.
Still noodling, I took a walk through the big display for "Flyboys", a WW1 flying movie, set to open in the fall. The makers have pt a lot of effort into authenticity, so I expect it'll be a must-see.
Zaug's lunch, more conversation, this time with an exhibitor. The main insight gleaned from that conversation was the issue of vendors who are percieved as valuable to the members being priced out of the show, and replaced with junk dealers who can survive on small margins. I don't know that I agree with everything that was said, but I certainly can't get the nametag I want here...
Another good conversation was one with a teacher from Oklahoma, trading tips and strategies for Youth outreach. We traded cards.
Dinner, and conversation with a camp guest rounded out the day. and then it was time to go to the movie (One Six Right) screening.
The movie was projected on one of the new Sony 4K players, to a packed house, It resonated with me, and perhaps a large part of the audience, who know the challenges and delights of small airports. And even here, a possible youth activity was shown -- a pedal-plane sized model of the airport painted on the asphalt...
I wrote my late-night meditation, as I am writing this one,on the dek of the vintage red barn; after, I walked back camp and crashed.