Word: airfoils
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...worn, if paranoiac paths, imagining images of small pebbles and pigeons being sucked into the intake of the engine directly outside my window and my horror at seeing the entire wing of our plane shudder and detach, tumbling end-over-end, destroying the beautiful and necessary symmetry of the airfoil at 29,000 feet...
Tucked away in the far corner of the convention center are the resplendently decorated show motorcycles. The most striking of these comes complete with double rear tires, airfoil, and American flag paint job. Beside the bike stands a buxom woman also clad in red, white and blue, who refuses to explain the origin of the license plate number ("JUGS...
...positions athletes take while competing often look mystifyingly ungainly, but there are usually practical reasons. Aerodynamic considerations have led ski jumpers to hold their arms at their sides to form an airfoil, getting as much updraft as possible after takeoff from the slope. Downhill racers crouch with their chests to their knees, assuming a near fetal position to cut wind resistance. In luge, sliders lying on their backs and steering with their feet minimize resistance by keeping their limbs aligned and body flat...
...Power. Unlike NASA'S traditional configuration, Sandia's upright eggbeater does not have to turn to face the breeze; its symmetrical shape offers the same surface to winds from any direction. Cribbing from jet aircraft, Polytechnic Institute of New York engineers are experimenting with a delta-shaped airfoil used in conjunction with standard windmill rotors. Pointing into the wind, the triangular whig amplifies the wind's power at least fivefold; the wind is focused into whirling streams that strike the rotors. Other teams at General Electric and at Connecticut's Kaman Corp., a helicopter manufacturer...
Paper-plane builder Kline is sure that he has somehow violated Bernoulli's principle. "Sorry, Bernoulli," he says, "but our airfoil just doesn't work that way." But Aerodynamicist Nicolaides gently points out that there is still a pressure differential between the top and bottom of the wing caused by differences in air flow, although he is not yet sure how this is achieved...