Tina wrote in news:7b4d9502-9229-4724-9b25-
:

The m20J is pretty slippery already and when it was introduced in the
70s was a big step up in efficiency in a production airplane.
Homebuilts do do an even better job of cleaning up aerodynamically.

Yeah, I've flown a good few 201s and 231s. Mostly the latter. They do
exactly as advertised!

The little seals on the flaps and so on were lipstick, the real gain
over the Mooney Executive had to do with the 201 getting a more
aerodynamic windscreen and engine cowling.

Well, I was talking about aftermarket stuff. There's lots for Mooneys,
but maybe they're all for the early airplanes. Havign said that, on a
relatively small engined but clean airplane, a small improvement in drag
reduction pays large dividends in efficiency. Not only that, they;re
cumulative, so if you make an improvement in one area, it's benefits are
compounded by one in another.


I think using ram air would not increase aerodynamic drag, B. Instead
of having the air moving at the airplane's airspeed plus prop induced
speed impacting the cowling, it could in fact be going into a hole.
It's only a 360 cubic inch engine turning at 2300 RPM or so. Isn't
that a demand of, let's see, at 23 inches mp at sea level that's
23/30 * 2300/2 * 360 / 12^3 or 180 cubic feet a minute?

Well, it's more than likely that Mooney saw a little opportunity to add
that feature when they were analising the flow around the inlet area and
saw a bit of wasted air they could put to good use. they don't like
waste, those guys.
Al's designs were almost all masterpieces. My own favorite is the
Alexander Eaglerock which was his first. A startlingly efficient design
for it's day and my favorite machine of the period. The Bullet was just
unreal, though. Someone's got one flying now. What i wouldn't give to
fly it! Of course, the final design was far removed from Al's original
anyway, so I guess it can't really join the long list of his beauties...

Bertie