its funny as cars don't have keys anymore, its all push button.



That is knowing your customer. What is so special about having to push a button/toggle versus turn a key?

Tim

I've got this stupid fob for my Ram. It has buttons on it for lock, unlock, start and panic that have never been pressed. I stick my hand in the handle and the doors unlock. I press the button and it starts. If I want to remote start it, I do so with an app on my phone. Why can't that stupid fob be the size and thickness of a credit card so I can put it in my wallet?

Actually, RFID for the door locks and button to start/stop. But the RFID depends on constant power draw and the alarm system. Considering the time people let planes sit and already hook the battery up to a minder not sure this would be a good solution for a plane. Besides, this is fairly recent for main stream cars.

Tim

I've got this stupid fob for my Ram. It has buttons on it for lock, unlock, start and panic that have never been pressed. I stick my hand in the handle and the doors unlock. I press the button and it starts. If I want to remote start it, I do so with an app on my phone. Why can't that stupid fob be the size and thickness of a credit card so I can put it in my wallet?

I think you are wrong about that. The total wetted area of the SF50 tail is substantially more than a conventional tail including the fin. And that is before you add pitch trim drag effects of the V tail.

If a V tail was more efficient, you would see them on airliners where every tiny improvement is desired. You don't see that at all.

The V tail exists for only one reason, to make room for the single jet exhaust. It is aerodynamically inferior to a conventional tail which is why the conventional tail is conventional (and used by Cirrus on SR20/22).

Mike C.

Other airplanes with lesser control surfaces flare just fine.

How can they do that?

Their conventional horizontal surface is applying force directly in the up or down direction, not some percentage less caused by the angled surface of a V tail.


Yes, it does.

The surface can't deflect 12 inches and provide good control, parts of it stall or you get air burbles and vibration (like some big flaps). So smooth and relatively proportional controls means limits on control surface deflection. If you need more force, you need more surface. More surface is larger hinge line, more weight, larger balance weights, etc, which all effect efficiency. The hinge line is a notable cause of surface inefficiency since it represents both a break in the airfoil shape and a potential air leak from one side to the other (hence the desired for gap seals which don't always work out in practice).


No, but you will have partial deflection for trim with varying CG and speed. On a V tail, some of the lift is lost in a yaw fight and doesn't help trim the airplane in pitch.

Mike C.

Everyone who flies a Bonanza knows that V-tails are more efficient.

Unfortunately, the laws of physics are not determined by a vote.

One has to ask why Beech made EVERY airplane after the 35 less efficient by using a conventional tail.

Mike C.

Unfortunately, the laws of physics are not determined by a vote.

One has to ask why Beech made EVERY airplane after the 35 less efficient by using a conventional tail.

Mike C.

Unfortunately, the laws of physics are not determined by a vote.

One has to ask why Beech made EVERY airplane after the 35 less efficient by using a conventional tail.

Mike C.

Pretty hard to argue the facts....
Mike isn't the one designing airplanes the last 40 plus years, yet no one has made a production plane with a non conventional tail over that time period. Seems that all those thousands of engineers at however many aircraft manufactures use the same math he does and come up with the same answers....

If the V tail was more efficient, Beech would still be making it and so would everyone else.

"Doctor Killer"

"Doctor Killer"

How do laws of physics explain why a V35B is 3-4 kts faster than identical F33A?

Even though it has similar/more wetted area, it's the one surface less interference drag that makes the Vs faster.