CAFE Technology Library

Enabling Technologies - Drag Reduction

Drag Reduction Technologies

Drag reduction is vital to achieving speed and fuel efficiency. The CAFE 400 races of the 1980's inspired many innovations in drag reduction that are covered in the CAFE 400 reports under "Research & Publications" on this website. There are a great number of resources on this topic and we here present some of our favorites. The designer must attend to issues of laminar flow, cooling drag, interference drag, leakage drag, induced drag, wetted area and parasite drag. As more papers on this topic become available to us, we shall post them.

Drag Reduction


#	Title	Author	Year	Description	Size
1	Fluid Mechanics, Drag Reduction and Advanced Configuration Aeronautics	Dennis M. Bushnell	2000	Open thermodynamics and their potential to greatly reduce drag. Great bibliography includes exciting AIAA papers by Goldschmied on negative drag.	292KB
2	An Approach to Turbulent Incompressible Separation under Adverse Pressure Gradients	Fabio R. Goldschmied	1964	Theory and prediction of skin-friction drag as a function of Reynolds number	1 MB
3	An Approach to Turbulent Incompressible Separation and the Determination of Skin-Friction Under Adverse Pressure Gradients	Fabio R. Goldschmied	1964	More Theory and prediction of skin-friction drag as a function of Reynolds number	652 KB
4	Integrated Hull Design, Boundary-Layer Control, and Propulsion of Sub-merged Bodies	F.R. Goldschmied	1966	Up to 50% reduction in power required for low-drag hulls is described in detail	1.4 MB
5	Shaping of Axisymmetric Bodies for Minimum Drag In Incompressible Flow	Jerome S. Parsons Raymond E. Goodson and Fabio R. Goldschmied	1973	Optimization of low drag hulls akin to the Dolphin experimental body shows major drag reductions	1.1 MB
6	Comment on LTA Aerodynamic Data Revisited	F.R. Goldschmied	1977	1 page presentation on major drag reduction method	80 KB
7	Aerodynamic Hull Design for HASPA LTA Optimization	Fabio R. Goldschmied	1978	Airship shape optimization by afterbody shape	528 KB
8	Wind Tunnel Demonstration of an Optimized LTA System with 65% Power Reduction and Neutral Static Stability	Fabio R. Goldschmied	1983	Major wake drag reduction by aft suction slot	1.3 MB
9	Jet-Propulsion of Subsonic Bodies with Jet Total-Head Equal to Free Stream's	F.R. Goldschmied	1983	Major wake drag reduction on axisymmetric bodies with aft co-axial jet exit and rear suction slot	564 KB
10	On the Aerodynamic Optimization of Mini-RPV and Small GA Aircraft	F.R. Goldschmied	1984	Application of Goldschmied suction slot body to GA fuselage design—very promising drag reduction	768 KB
11	Aerodynamic Design of Low-Speed Aircraft With a NASA Fuselage/Wake Propeller Configuration	F.R. Goldschmied et al	1986	Major drag reduction for GA aircraft of 140-180 mph range	968 KB
12	Fuselage Self-Propulsion by Static-Pressure Thrust: Wind-Tunnel Verification	F.R. Goldschmied	1987	Boundary layer control by Goldschmied body shape yields major drag reduction	1.1 MB
13	On a Least-Energy Hypothesis for the Wake of Axisymmetric Bodies with Turbulent Separation: Pressure-Distribution Prediction	Fabio R. Goldschmied	1988	Naval Airship “Akron” studied as a Dolphin shape	1.5 MB
14	Synergistic Airframe-Propulsion Interactions and Integrations	Steven F. Yaros et al	1998	A white paper of 124 pages that integrates many high- tech aerodynamic concepts. Includes excellent illustrations.	6.6MB
15	Flight Research on Natural Laminar Flow	B.J. Holmes and c.p van Dam	1988	Explorations of the drag reducing benefits of NLF on several aircraft; includes the effect of engine noise/vibration on NLF.	7.43MB
16	Natural Laminar Flow Experiments on Modern Airplane Surfaces	B.J. Holmes et al	1984	A 144 page landmark paper on the behavior of NLF and the effects of rain on its stability.	10.3MB
17	Low Drag Fuselages	Francisco Leme Galvao	1968	A succinct note on low drag bodies of revolution: tuna shapes.	5.2MB
18	Nano-coatings for wetted drag reduction	Francisco Leme Galvao	1991	Potential for reduction skin drag using special coatings.	1MB