On Mar 31, 9:53*pm, "BT" wrote:
"Martin Gregorie" wrote in message

...



On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:34:33 -0700, dlhoppe wrote:

On Mar 31, 3:14 pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:55:29 +0100, bagmaker wrote:
Not really gliding, but it looks as though the poms have mounted a
glider wing on a speed car here!

http://www.gizmag.com/wind-powered-c...-record/11346/

It looks more like a more-or-less complete giant RC glider to me - just
remove the fin and one wingtip and bolt her on.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Did you guys notice the amout of sideways skidding that was going on
during the run? Boy if they could improve lateral resistance somehow
with better traction, they could go plenty faster. There must have been
a substantial amount of drag going on with the vehicle sliding sideways
the entire time. Very cool project though.

My first reaction is "more down-force and wider tyres", but the amount of
dust being kicked up suggests that the surface may be loose enough for
those remedies to make the additional rolling resistance more speed
limiting than the side slip.

What is the surface like where they set the record?

The Ivanpah Dry Lake is just south of here, and just south of were we fly
gliders.
The surface is loose packed "fine sand", it's a dry lake bed that a month
earlier was wet, so as it dried with no wind it became rather smooth, but
easily kicked up. the surface is not as hard as the salt flats in the north
part of the state where the land speed car and motorcycle records have been
set.

The winds that day were 30G40 and higher, our sail planes were "flying in
the tie downs".

There are 3 dry lakes in the Ivanpah Valley, Ivanpah, Roach and Jean Dry
Lakes. We use the east part of Roach for safari and auto tow launches twice
a year. Check them out on Google Earth. Go to Jean or Primm NV and then
north and south.
BT

Wingmasts are very common sites on landyachts. Some even use flaps.

If you want more traction, you add lead. The boats are heavy: 1600
pounds plus for the Iron Duck. Large iceboatsexceed twice that.

Contrary to the article, iceboats have gone faster using modern
instruments. But the Brits have simply written off the generally
accepted record of 143 mph which was set in the 40's.

/Adam