Rich_R

“Operational Necessity” is a term used in USN NATOPS. Whenever it was suggested as justification for a flight, the next assignment was to actually look it up in NATOPS…defined there as circumstances that may result in the loss of the aircraft and/or crew. Similarly, it is the PIC’s responsibility to prevent the forging of a PBF flight mishap chain…if they can’t (or won’t) they shouldn’t be the PIC of any flight. Most have heard the “Can Do” line “it’s better to die than to look bad” but the often unspoken next line is…“but you can do both”.

Will_Alibrandi

If reducing drag is the goal, why has nobody come out with wheel fairings for the Caravan?

2 replies

Arthur_Foyt

Great point.
That would be a better first step than the “Jim Bede school of marketing” claims of up to 10% for a wingtip change.

Rich_R

From an engineering standpoint simple is lighter than complex…if induced drag is the target, complexity (weight) is the enemy…if parasitic (form) drag is the target, then complexity is the tradeoff for retractable gear/flaps. Putting active wingtips on a bolted gear plane implies lipstick on a pig.

For all the folks who feel the need to label this view “luddite”, pardon my skepticism, but after a few decades of wading through “visionary engineering” proposals, my patience is worn by those who ignore physics, the encountered environment and embrace needless complexity without thought to the entire system (read maint) lifecycle.

I’ll give tech demonstrations a pass, but the rush to widely field unproven concepts is going to bite the industry when something easily forecast takes out a planeload of pax.

maule

I’d imagine if the winglets made a significant difference Cessna would have included them, or their own version, with the standard airplane.

I’d also imagine if aerodynamic efficiency is the goal, a Caravan is a poor place to start.

One of my favorite airplanes but not amenable to aerodynamic tweaking.

gmbfly98

My guess is because wheel pants/fairings aren’t great for unimproved/grass strips, which is what the Caravan is good at. Same reason why retractable gear wouldn’t be desirable. At least the winglets are up high on the wings, so less susceptible to damage from gravel/etc.

1 reply

Arthur_Foyt

True, but I don’t see these expensive conversions being used on mud runways.