avib@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Avi Belinski) (12/04/90)
>From the letters to the editor page of the New York Times, Sept 30, 1990
To The Editor:
"New Plane Wing Design Greatly Cuts Drag to Save Fuel" (Science Times
Sept. 11) reports that the performance of airplane wings has been
improved by incorporating small holes to draw off air where the wings
are subject to turbulence.
This surprising recipe reminds me of a story that Vladimir Engelhardt,
the leading Soviet biochemist, told our biochemical delegation to the
Soviet Union in 1960. Today's news reports of Soviet economic problems
may give the story added interest.
It seems that a newly designed plane lost its right wing in its
first test flight. In a test of a second prototype of the same design,
the left wing broke off at the same position. The manager of the factory
consulted the wisest, oldest plane designer in the Soviet Union, who
pondered the problem and advised drilling small holes through both wings,
at 10-centimeter intervals, along the line of cleavage. The plane then
flew successfully.
When asked how he knew that the holes would balance the forces and
strengthen rather than weaken the wings, the consultant explained that
some problems are too complex to solve by direct analysis and hence must
be approached by analogy. He built on the analogy that Soviet toilet
paper never tears along the line of perforations.
Bernard D. Davis
Boston, Sept. 12, 1990
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