NASA flight research on aircraft wake vortices and minimization concepts
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Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Verstynen, H. A., Jr..
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A wind-tunnel investigation has been conducted to determine the effects of slot spoilers on the longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic characteristics of a full-scale mockup of a light twin-engine airplane. The slots were located along the leading edge of the flaps and were used to modulate the flap-induced lift as a possible means of achieving direct lift control. The data showed that the slots were effective in spoiling up to 61 percent of the flap-induced lift, but that an adverse pitching-moment change (nose up) accompanied opening the slots. Opening the slots was found to decrease slightly the downwash angle at the tail and to increase slightly the longitudinal stability of the model.
A flight investigation has been conducted to study the velocity and persistence characteristics of the trailing vortices generated by a jumbo jet transport. The investigation showed that the tangential velocities were initially higher for vortices generated with the flaps up and that they persisted for longer distances behind the aircraft than those generated with the flaps down. The core radii with flaps down appeared to be generally larger than those with flaps up. The vertical locations of the vortices behind the generating aircraft varied from several hundred meters below the generating aircraft flight path at long ranges up to, and occasionally above, the flight path at short and moderate ranges.
Effect of wing-tip vortex wakes generated by large jet transport aircraft on smaller airplanes