After 80 Years of Smooth-Wing Dogma, Micro-Roughness Cut Drag 43%

A Distributed Micro-Roughness surface reduced aerodynamic drag by up to 43.6% in experiments run by a Japanese team using a magnetic levitation wind tunnel at the University of Tohoku. The microscopic, canyon-like texture is designed to suppress Tollmien-Schlichting wave growth, but the approach still needs full-scale validation and a maintenance plan to keep the surface […]