A wing's two drags, and the lift at which they are equal
Friction drag and induced drag plotted against lift coefficient, with their sum above them. Friction is flat, because a surface costs the same whatever the wing is doing; induced drag rises as the square of the lift. The total is least where the two are equal, and that is also the point of best glide.
5 essays call
drag-split. The drawing above is what it returns with no arguments at all; every
call below passes it something, because a placement that passes nothing draws whichever member
of the family the generator happens to default to rather than the one its essay argues about.
It is also the blast radius. Changing drag-split changes every figure listed here
at once, and on this site it may change what they assert as well as what they show —
which is what has to be rebuilt and looked at before the change is believed.
Where it is called
What each of these essays asks for instead of the defaults is on the regime index, which reads the parameters back out of the finished figures rather than out of the placements.
- The two drags a wing pays Viscosity
- The cheapest way to stay up Viscosity
- The drag that falls as it speeds up Fluids at work
- Faster than the wind that drives it Fluids at work
- The cost of going turbulent Viscosity