On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:38:01 -0500, "Scott Correa"
wrote:

OK people, what was the verdict.
I'm sure some logger equipped pullups were made.
Who wins?? Wet or dry.
I still think wet pullups go higher, but I can't prove it.

What Alan, Mike and m said. Strictly from a potential/kinetic energy
standpoint, it's a wash. Not APPROXIMATELY a wash --- EXACTLY a wash.
However, there at least two more factors.

First, the wet ship has to pitch up to a higher angle of attack as it
starts the pullup, in order to achieve a given upward acceleration.
This will extract a penalty in the form of energy removed by induced
drag.

Once the change of direction is completed, both pilots can reduce
their angle of attack to the zero-lift point, giving an ascending
parabola which will maximize the altitude reached. In this condition
the only drag is parasite drag, which will be the same for both ships;
consequently the wet ship has an edge here because its larger mass
will decelerate less for a given drag force.

So the answer to the question depends on which of these effects is
larger. It shouldn't be hard to settle with an empirical test: just
have two ships pull up simultaneously in line-abreast formation.

rj