Re: [Paddlewise] skegs up

From: Dave Kruger <dkruger_at_pacifier.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 07:06:39 -0700
John Myers wrote:
> 
>     I am puzzled by the discussion of "lift" as it applies to skegs and
> rudders. I recall something called  Bernoulli's Principle that describes
> lift in terms of airplane wing sections but rudders and skegs are not
> shaped that way. It seems to me that if a skeg had a cross section like
> that, say, of a Cessna 150, the "lift" it created would tend to pull the
> kayak's stern to one side or the other just as it tends to pull the
> Cessna's wing upward.

Any surface with a *positive angle of attack* will generate lift.   Aerobatic
aircraft have symmetrical (or nearly so) airfoils, and generate lift whether
right side up or upside down.  The asymmetric airfoil of the Cessna's airfoil
is designed to generate lift in only one direction.  A symmetrical airfoil on
a skeg/rudder would work like the aerobatic aircraft's airfoil.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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Received on Tue Oct 19 1999 - 07:07:30 PDT

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