The air wing....

[Conceptual]

What about static electricity? These cars already generate enough to require grounding straps, would it be possible to harness that SE to create "bubbles" for the air to flow around? Or, is it to use it as a kind of "skin" that would lower surface friction?

Static electric bodywork would own... Right up to the first time one of them light up like an Xmas tree...

Chris

[Carlos]

Electromagnetic Boundary Layer Flow Control came up a few pages back and I found this reference. http://arc.uta.edu/research/mhd.htm So it's proof positive F1T is on the cutting edge between imagination and research.

And it looks like UTA is interested in one of my enthusiasms - micro vortex generators. http://arc.uta.edu/research/vortex.htm

We're not the only ones thinkin about stuff

Just one more thing, few pages back there were some comments on the effects of scaling, texturization and grooving on reducing drag - well it's real and here is a few pages those F1 aero guys in the wind tunnels are probably thinking about and if they're not - they should be

Working note on low Reynolds-number applications
http://www.winggrid.ch/working_note_low_Re.pdf

[fastback33]

Interesting you bring this back up Carlos. I have been wondering with next years regs taking all of the appendages off. That why not take the body and extrude, parts of it to direct aero? Think along the lines of the front wheel arches of the Mazda Furai.

[estenene]

Hey guys i literally made an account to post on this page because i am an engineer and a gyro pilot and i was looking online for ionized wing because I'm in the process of building a wing that works with ionized air but for flight. I intend on positively charging the air in front of the wind using lifter technology and through UV lights and negatively charging the rear end of the wing. I'm trying to have airflow through the wing without thrust in attempt to have lift without much forward thrust. If anyone isn't familiar with lifter technology you can simply look up "lifter" on YouTube and find a long list of videos explaining and showing what lifters are.I figure if I ionize the air further out in front of the wing with positively charged UV light then the ionized air will rush to the end of the negatively charged airfoil shaped wing. Well i have much experimenting to do but i hope my two cents stir up imagination and hopefully keep conversation going. This is probably not a good idea but If anyone has any questions on my progress here's my e-mail address feel free to ask suggest or simply assist with any new ideas thank you.

thewingedrevolution@gmail.com

[gixxer_drew]

Bubbles happen to air... sort of. How do you define a "bubble" though? two different states? Higher density with a localized lower density. The latter happens all the time.

[mep]

When I look for “lifter” on YouTube I find only some alu-foil vehicles which hoover over the ground.
Where is exactly the analogy to what you are doing?

[superdread]

They both ionize the surrounding gas and accelerate it through a current along the wing (or in the lifter's case along the craft). Thereby they mimic the same principles as ion thrusters, but should be less efficient, and ion thrusters are already fearfully inefficient.

Ionocraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionocraft) is far better term than "lifters".

[estenene]

Yes superdead is semi-correct but I am not attempting to recreate an ion thruster. Visualize my wing as such: the ionocrafts shown on youtube only thrust air downward and that is not my goal my goal is to turn the ionocraft on its side and turn the negatively charged foil into an airfoil shape. Then I aim the UV light forward of the wing Ive tested this many times at different wind speeds and the result is the wind ahead is pulled into the wing and lifts the wing with little to no forward movement because the UV light ionizes the air and makes it sensitive to the lifter effect and carries heavier gusts of wind under the wing which in theory, its really all that is needed for lift ... my attempt is to build wings to lift people without needing a runway or jumping out of a plane. So far the tests prove true but these tests are small scale and I haven't the funds to build a man-size scale. I know there are many skeptics out there but open your mind a while and yes ion thrusters are inefficient that is when used on extremely heavy aircraft not a 176 pound man and although I know I said I'm not building an ion thruster if you look up anything online that I've talked about you'll end up in a site talking about ion-thrusters. And yes Ive also done the math and with a wingspan of at least 10ft and a decent power supply it should be able to lift up to 300 lbs that's no problem because i figure if you spent your life getting heavier than 260lbs i believe you have no intention of flying if not in a plane. 300lbs should cover human weight, equipment, and about 20lbs of cargo which I think is a reasonable amount of available cargo space.

[godlameroso]

So what, do you tie it to the back of a pickup and fly it up like a kite?

[superdread]

An ion thruster works by ionizing a gas, accelerate it with an EM field and then neutralizing the ions. This is the same basic principle the Ionocrafts use, to be more precise they use the Biefeld-Brown effect (a flow of charged particles accelerates the neutral air around it).

The inefficiency of ion thrusters has nothing to do with the weight you want to lift, they are wasteful at any scale.
As an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiPEP needs 50kW to provide 1N of thrust.

[estenene]

If you know enough of this to know it by its correct name then you should also know about the black projects and aircraft tests made by the military also several military aircraft already use this technology. Obviously Im not just gonna put my designs and blueprints on the internet for everyone to know ive already done extensive testing of my own not just read things on the internet and act like i know. The wing works and will revolutionize the world just needs a bit more work because, like the first car created, it hasnt reached its full potential. But progress is being made everyday

[superdread]

Finding the name of the underlying effect is not hard and doesn't come with any info about alleged military or civilian implementations. I have no reason to believe that your idea works, especially as you are not very precise about it.
So, get on with it, build a prototype and offer it to open scrutiny.