Hi all,
I have just read Don Dykins book =AB Understanding the aerodynamics of
your Europa aircraft =BB and I am puzzled by what I read in the
"Prototype flight test performance" section.
Figure 1 on page 15 shows that you need more power to fly at a given
airspeed at altitude than at sea level. I first thought it was a typo,
but page 18 confirms this assertion: "more HP is required to fly at a
given speed at 10,000ft than at sea level".
The typical light aircraft cruises about 5 to 10 percent faster at
10000 ft than at sea level using the same power, and you can verify this
with your own Europa as well.
So Don Dykins is wrong. Unless he is talking about indicated airspeed.
In that case, talking about performance, this is nonsense.
I cannot believe someone who has contributed to the design of such a
wonderful aircraft can be so wrong. Am I missing something?
Please comment.
Remi Guerner
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