How would an airplane's aerodynamics be different if its skin were covered with sandpaper?

Answer 1

that's a very good question.

i know that airplane paints are made to be as slick and glossy as possible while maintaining a low weight. this gives you less wind resistance and reduced weight. you want the plane slick so that it slides through the air.

i know that if you take off in a small plane and there is frost on the wings that will affect the amount of lift your wings can deliver. i'm sure that sandpaper would have the same effect, although it probably wouldn't have as much effect as icing does. but icing is different in that it changes the shape of the wing so that the wing is no longer shaped like an airfoil.

i know dirty planes fly slower because of the increased friction. i'm thinking that a sandpaper surface would probably significantly reduce your cruising speed.

Answer 2

An airplane must be as sleek as possible to reduce drag. If you had a sandpaper skin the parasite drag of the airframe would be drastically increased. The more drag you have the more power you would need to get off the ground. Once you were able to get off the ground you would be working twice as hard to move the plane through the air causing more wear on the engine and higher fuel consumption.

Answer 3

Anyone ever touched a SR-71? It feels like fine sandpaper. A certain level of roughness can actually reduce drag by forming small pockets of localized low pressure that "suck" laminar flow back onto a wing allowing you to operate at varying angles of attack with smaller induced drag penalties.

However, the technology to do this is so expensive that it is restricted to very expensive military aircraft. It also has the added luxury of scrambling radar, making the plane mostly stealth

Answer 4

The airplane would suffer from excessive drag. The disturbance of the aircraft unstable. It depends on the grade of the sandpaper.

Answer 5

Well, the stereotypical thing to say would be that it increases drag and slows down the plane, but in reality, the rough serface would disturb the airflow over the wings so much that the plane would be apsolutely useless.
An examlpe would be wing icing. most people think the weight is what makes it so dangerous, but its not, since it might add 10lbs to the entire plane. what it really does is disturb the airflow, which reduces the lift of the wing significantly.

Answer 6

You blubber head. The metal surface has to be completely smooth. Suggest you go to a library and do some reading on airplanes and learn something.

Answer 7

It would create turbulence in the airflow on the plane, so the control surfaces would take much longer to respond.

Answer 8

Good job Prince Uranus for giving a simple answer to a simple answer!

Answer 9

It would increase parasitic drag slowing the plane and consuming more fuel, it would also interfere with the angle of attack.

Answer 10

ouch**