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Wetted area

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Wetted Area: In aerodynamics, the total area of an aeroplane or airship exposed to airflow.
Whirlwind: A small region of air revolving rapidly round a low-pressure core and acting for some hundreds of feet up from the ground.

 


If that were the end of the story, the hydrogen-fueled aircraft would have lower performance than the kerosene aircraft due to the extra wetted area of the fuselage. The larger fuselage size causes more skin friction drag and wave drag.

where the skin friction coefficient, cf , which is based on the exposed wetted area includes the effects of roughness, and the form factor, k, accounts for the effects of both supervelocities and pressure drag.

The way to minimize friction drag is to minimize the total wetted area (i.e. the total area that has high-speed air flowing along it). The way to reduce form drag is to minimize separation, by making everything streamlined.

See also: Plane, Weight, Power, Drag, Aircraft