Hang on to the Bumps for a Smoother Flight

by Amarendra Swarup New Scientist, 4 Mar 2006 The performance-sapping turbulence of air passing over aircraft wings can be suppressed by carefully designed roughness in the surfaces. So says a team at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in defiance of the conventional wisdom that roughness inevitably promotes turbulence. The team's experiments could have far-reaching consequences for the aerospace industry, which spends vast amounts to reduce this costly effect. Read more