Quote Originally Posted by Dave Brockman
Urgh!

Here's a question for you.

Formula One cars are the product of a multi-million pound design budget, with some of the sharpest minds in the business working on them, right?

They're designed to be as quick as possible while at the same time generating the maximum downforce in as efficient manner as possible. The airflow over the whole car needs to be efficient to avoid wasting engine power and fuel. The tiniest change could find or lose fractions of a second, which could be the difference between winning a race or staring ruefully up at the podium.

So far so good.

Right.

Commercial airliners are the product of a multi-billion pound design budget, with some of the sharpest minds in the business working on them, right?

They're designed to be as quick as possible while at the same time generating the maximum lift in as efficient manner as possible. The airflow over the whole 'plane needs to be efficient to avoid wasting engine power and fuel. The tiniest change could have a massive impact on the craft's efficiency and running costs, which could be the difference between offering cheap fares and being regarded as envionmentally friendly, or ruefully watching your rival airline steal your passengers.

So, here's the question. Why don't aircraft have all these stupid winglets and flipups all over them?
Aircraft operate in clean air, away from the ground away from the influences of the ground and they are designed to primarily operate in one direction, forward with little change in direction laterally and the turning devices ate at the rear of the airstream. Cars operate in contact with the ground, are turned by front wheels directly in the airstream that totally disturbs the airflow aft of the wheels in a very inconsistent manner. Cars turn primarilly mechanically. Aircraft turn totally aerodynamically by mechanically actuating aerodynamic surfaces. Many of the appendages on the cars are to streamline flow around items that cannot be moved or changed due to the regulations, and not necessarily for downforce. Apples and oranges aerodynamically.