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Originally Posted by jyl
Very cool. I wonder how much study they did, before building the plane, to assure themselves that it is a sound design. Can an entire plane be simulated on the computer?. Do you have to build scale models and fly them?
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The problem with scale models, is air flow doesn't simulate perfectly in scale. At a given velocity, a model will have the air flow differently than at full size.
The biggest risk of flying a 1930's race plane, is controls at those speeds were not figured out. The Gee Bee Z's horrible crash in the Shell Dash run happened from forces not understood before the crash on the control surfaces.
As speed changes, the handling changes. There can be a cross over speed where separation of air can cause a reversal of control from input at a lower speed.
You can run simulations at multiple velocities, and this, depending on the size of your computing power, will probably be better than a scale model. A scale model can help with major flaws, but there can be unexpected different results when scaling.
There were some real geniuses designing the planes back then. Sometimes its best not to tinker with what they made, unless what they made crashed. In this case, we don't know.
Hopefully they get it fixed, and back out there.