RHEOELECTRIC MEASUREMENTS OF SOME THEORETICAL EFFECTS OF GROUND PROXIMITY ON WINGS,

An electric analogy to the problem of a wing in ground effect, assuming the shed vortex system to trail straight behind the wing, was established, using Teledeltos conductive paper as the working medium. For the case of uniform downwash, span-looking distributions and effective aspect ratio were measured, as functions of height/span ratio, for plane wings, certain endplated wings, and for a wing of which the lateral cross-section is a circular arc with its center lying at the ground surface. The results indicate that the use of end plates to reduce the ground clearance is relatively ineffective. (Author)