The Pond Racer

Discussion on the Pond Racer at this forum site..

Aviation Airshow Air Race Photography Discussion - The Pond Racer.....Rutan's Watergate

The third post down talks about intersection drag..

"But the criteria for the racer was for a twin engine plane, with a pilot 'pod' isolated from the engines...well...you only can do so much. No matter how you slice it, the airframe design is going to have a ton of 'intersection' drag....the same reason you'll NEVER see a fast P-38, no matter what you do to it. All those corners are going to add up to a brick wall at some point, and horsepower just won't be able to overcome it".

What is 'intersection drag' and what does he mean by "NEVER see a fast P-38"?

Graeme said:

Discussion on the Pond Racer at this forum site..

Aviation Airshow Air Race Photography Discussion - The Pond Racer.....Rutan's Watergate

The third post down talks about intersection drag..

"But the criteria for the racer was for a twin engine plane, with a pilot 'pod' isolated from the engines...well...you only can do so much. No matter how you slice it, the airframe design is going to have a ton of 'intersection' drag....the same reason you'll NEVER see a fast P-38, no matter what you do to it. All those corners are going to add up to a brick wall at some point, and horsepower just won't be able to overcome it".

What is 'intersection drag' and what does he mean by "NEVER see a fast P-38"?

Click to expand...

I read the forum posts - some of those guys are full of sh!t. I know Rutan and used to work for someone who was with Greenamyer during the Kee Bird Fiasco (as they put it). As one writer put it - "Monday morning quarterbacks." Intersection drag? Hmmm... Perhaps that would of helped with the P-38 compressibility problems?!?!?