The Aerodrome Forum - View Single Post - Pflaz DIIIa

Chock · 5 November 2009, 05:43 PM

If you really want to know from a reliable source, this is probably a very good bet:

The National Archives | The Catalogue | Quick reference | AIR 1/1977/204/273/60

Regardless of how streamlined things look, all externally rigged biplanes with fixed landing gear are as draggy as hell. We can hear that in the cliche 'screaming dive' sound effect you get in war movies of an aeroplane plunging earthwards. That sound is mostly the airflow in the bracing wires and other 'sticky out bits' of biplane aircraft, which is an effect the Germans enhanced with the wind-driven 'Trumpets of Jericho' siren they mounted on the landing gear fairing of the Ju-87.

For something to generate that kind of sound, it has to be messing with the airflow like crazy. So as you can imagine, the engine protruding into the airflow on the front of a Pfalz might well cause more drag than the flat fronted, but cleanly-cowled SE5a, and it would certainly screw up the low pressure airflow to the centre section of the upper wing to some degree. Ironically, the flat bottomed section of the boxy SE5a fuselage probably also meant it generated a bit of lift in comparison to the round fuselages of stuff like the Albatros and Pfalz, and such a similarly boxy fuselage profile may well have contributed to it on the DVII too.

Al

5 November 2009, 05:43 PM	#36 (permalink)
Chock Scout Pilot Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The grim north of England Posts: 405	If you really want to know from a reliable source, this is probably a very good bet: The National Archives \| The Catalogue \| Quick reference \| AIR 1/1977/204/273/60 Regardless of how streamlined things look, all externally rigged biplanes with fixed landing gear are as draggy as hell. We can hear that in the cliche 'screaming dive' sound effect you get in war movies of an aeroplane plunging earthwards. That sound is mostly the airflow in the bracing wires and other 'sticky out bits' of biplane aircraft, which is an effect the Germans enhanced with the wind-driven 'Trumpets of Jericho' siren they mounted on the landing gear fairing of the Ju-87. For something to generate that kind of sound, it has to be messing with the airflow like crazy. So as you can imagine, the engine protruding into the airflow on the front of a Pfalz might well cause more drag than the flat fronted, but cleanly-cowled SE5a, and it would certainly screw up the low pressure airflow to the centre section of the upper wing to some degree. Ironically, the flat bottomed section of the boxy SE5a fuselage probably also meant it generated a bit of lift in comparison to the round fuselages of stuff like the Albatros and Pfalz, and such a similarly boxy fuselage profile may well have contributed to it on the DVII too. Al __________________ Wiseman: When you removed the book from the cradle, did you speak the words? Ash: Yeah, basically. Wiseman: Did you speak the exact words? Ash: Look, maybe I didn't say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically I said them, yeah. Last edited by Chock; 5 November 2009 at 06:32 PM.