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Minimum Drag Nose Cowling for Electric Planes

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danmoser

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
695
Location
Sandy, Utah, USA
Trying to minimize the drag from the cowling on a tractor propeller plane is highly dependent upon engine cooling requirements.
However, cooling requirements are greatly reduced for electric propulsion, allowing potential drag reduction by resculpting the nose cowling.

Modern pusher propeller aircraft designs --such as the Synergy-- plan to use maximum laminar flow in the nose to reduce drag, and utilize suction and entrained flow on the aft body just upstream of the prop.
But what if you want or need the prop in front?

It seems safe to assume that a front-mounted propeller will result in turbulent flow along the nose cowling and this flow would be much higher in velocity than a pusher would experience.
Can this characteristic be exploited to gain performance?

The Front Electric Sustainer is mounted on sailplane noses in a way that blends in with the standard laminar nose shape of the original sailplane.. obviously designed for minimum power-off drag with folding curved blades, and little pockets to receive them.
FES utilizes a small cooling air inlet in the center of the spinner.
FES-1.jpgFES-2.jpg

The Yuneec e430, which is more of an airplane than a sailplane, has a slightly more conventional looking cowling and spinner .. but with smaller side cooling air inlets, yet still retaining a sailplane "look".
e430-1.jpge430-2.jpg

I was thinking there may have been some studies done to determine optimum nose cowling on front-mounted liquid-cooled engines, with radiators located away from the nose.. but haven't found anything like that yet.
The P-51 is such a craft, and it has a giant spinner almost the full width of the fuselage.. perhaps there's a benefit to this? .. granted, that's pretty far from being a "homebuilt airplane." :gig:
p-51-mustang1-485x728.jpgp-51-mustang-credit-caf.jpg
 
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