[Breaking ground] Request: Drag effects on collapsable wings

[Jestersage]

Request is simple: Does rotating wings, such as Tomcat style, actually affect drag?

[bewing]

No, not really. The primary drag from wings comes from producing lift. In the game, swept wings have the same lift as straight wings, and therefore the same drag.

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by bewing

[Jestersage]

Hold on -- but doesn't that means if they are instead collapse against teh body, they do reduce drag since they are not generating lift?

[bewing]

If your aircraft, or any part of it, goes from having a non-zero AOA to having a zero AOA, then yes -- your drag will be reduced and your plane will fall out of the sky because it has no lift.

 

[ajburges]

The only way to change magnitude of wing lift is to change AoA or occlude it in a closed bay. Changing wing shape only affects the where of lift, not the characteristics.

Note: moving the wing does change CoL. You can use this to make designs that have variable flight stability. For example, bring forward for more subsonic manuverability but sweep back for supersonic cruising. You can also create wings with variable incidence.

Edited June 18, 2019 by ajburges

[Snark]

Moving to Breaking Ground Discussion.

[KerbMav]

Move the wings' center of mass inside another part when swept back?

[KerikBalm]

That doesn't do anything except shift CoL