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Old January 18th 05, 07:26 AM
ShawnD2112
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Think of it in terms of angle of attack and you'll get a better picture of
it. With flaps down, you need a lower angle of attack to maintain the same
lift, so you'll have less vortex. Slow, you need a higher AOA to maintain
your lift or decent rate.

Watch a fighter pulling hard Gs at and airshow and you'll see the wingtip
smoke curl inward with the vortex and, in the case of an F-16, the two
wingtip streams often meet in the middle of the wake from the strength of
the vortex.

Shawn
"Eric Nospam" wrote in message
om...
You get the strongest wingtip vortices when an aircraft is flying heavy,
clean and slow. But why?

It has to do with the amount of lift being generated by the wing. HEAVY I
can understand. Heavier aircraft - you need more lift to keep it aloft.

But CLEAN? SLOW? Why do you get less vortex with the flaps down? Why
does a slow-moving aircraft generate a stronger vortex than a fast-moving
aircraft generating the same amount of lift? Is it because of the larger
angle of attack necessary to generate the same lift at a lower airspeed?
If so, why?

Eric