British pilot Nigel Lamb is feeling upbeat as Team Breitling prepares to race in the second round of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Perth on 17-18 April. Bolstered by a strong start in Abu Dhabi where Lamb took second place behind defending champion and fellow Brit Paul Bonhomme, the team is confident that a radical wing modification is delivering the right results in the track and will be sticking with them in Perth.
The striking ‘shark fins’ caused plenty of interest among rival teams as they were unveiled in Abu Dhabi. Similar in design to the upturned wings seen on modern airliners, the Team Breitling race plane now features some seriously mean-looking tapered winglets. These carbon fibre components can be attached in just 30 minutes and were purpose-built to fit Lamb’s plane. With an existing trend among teams for fashioning new wingtips, Lamb says his team is just going one (quite giant) step further with the concept by introducing the winglets, which are essentially vertical extensions to the traditional tips. Both styles have the same goal of improving the lift-to-drag ratio but look quite different in the flesh.
CONTROLLING AIRFLOW
Lamb’s former tech Nigel Huxtable played a big role in bringing the mod to fruition once designed but it was Mark Maughmer, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, who led the project. The science behind the eye-catching innovation is two-fold: to reduce the level of what’s called ‘induced drag’ and to gain wing area to assist in the turns.
“Induced drag is created by manoeuvring, when you have an angle of attack,” explains Lamb, who is sitting comfortably with 10 championship points after the first race. “You end up with a pressure differential between the top and bottom of the wing. Air flows from high pressure to low pressure so there’s a flow from the bottom of the wing to the top and this creates a massive vortex. What we’re doing with these winglets is controlling the air at the end of the wing to reduce the induced drag.”
BETTER TURNING ABILITY
A second advantage of the winglets is that they increase the wing area, which in turn spreads the ‘load’ or force on the wing, which is particularly relevant in a turn. “It’s a good thing from a performance point of view,” says Lamb. “The aeroplane will turn better. There is a formula which says if you get the right winglets without increasing the size of the actual wing, you can get a big increase in the span. So you’re getting the benefit but without the downside of reducing roll rate with a bigger wing.”
TECHNICAL CONUNDRUM
Research and development into the winglets began in 2008 although Lamb had been pondering the issue of induced drag for much longer. He says three years earlier, when he first tried out for the sport, it was clear that this technical conundrum should be tackled.“I came away knowing that if you could control the flow of air over the end of the wing, you’d definitely have a benefit,” explains Lamb.
“Anyone that understands the principles of flight knows that too. The problem – and it’s a huge one – is how do you get it right. If you get it wrong, you’ll end up with all sorts of problems and you could end up losing straight line speed and they could be a detriment.”
If teams “get the sums right” there can be very few downsides to adding the winglets and in theory the improvement in performance can be significant but it’s still trial and error for most.
“I’ve got 4 sets of wingtips and now these new winglets,” adds Lamb. “Lots of people have tried different things and this is just taking it seriously and doing it in a big way.”
PERTH PODIUM
With consistent performances throughout race week in Abu Dhabi, Lamb was confident the gamble with the winglets had paid off and the podium finish was the icing on the cake for the team. After a 2nd place podium in the Perth race in 2008, there could be a further opportunity for the team to add to their championship points this month.
“The Perth track looks quite similar to Abu Dhabi so I am hoping for a good result there,” says Lamb. “The big difference in 2010 is the new split quadro, which is a very different challenge to the old one in that there are many different ways to fly it. The real test in Abu Dhabi was coping with the heat and change of wind direction, which completely changed the track on race day. As we saw, several competitive teams had problems. The Freemantle Doctor (local Perth wind) can be unpredictable so that could present a similar challenge next week but I doubt the heat will be a factor. Team Breitling will be doing everything possible to have all the essential factors in place for a podium in Perth. The MXS-R is handling very well so all we can focus on now is to get the best performance we can from the engine and make sure the pilot is well 'tuned' and relaxed for the race.”
Comments
Add a comment