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Old 01-12-2005, 01:46 PM   #111
Lyta_Underhill
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Rigid vs. Nonrigid Balrog Wings P.S. What Wings?

Quote:
I would encourage you to look closely at this article that suggests a way to factor in the following variables: aerodynamic center of wing body combinations---lift, normal force, pitching moment, aerodynamic centre, upwash, drag.
Ah, but this opens a brand new can of worms! The Balrog (if it had wings, which I'm saying it doesn't, so why I'm going on like this, I can't fathom, except that it gives me a fine sense of the absurd..) cannot necessarily be assumed to have rigid wings and a rigid body. I suppose, if one wanted, one could open a spin-off thread, entitled "Are Balrogs Built Like Aircraft?" and even more elusively, "Can Balrogs Break the Sound Barrier in Flight?" both of which would assume a priori that Balrogs not only have wings but can fly in a straight line. There would, of course, be the dissenting school which bases their calculations on the flight of large birds and would perhaps extrapolate the difference between the flight of Thorondor and the flight of Gwaihir, thus determining the exact measure by which the size of the Great Eagles had diminished over the course of two Ages.

Then, there would be the splinter school of thought, which would spin off yet a third speculative thread, "How Badly Does the Fiery Whip Get Tangled up in a Balrog's Wings?" and finally, "Did Gandalf Smite the Balrog, or Did it Smack Itself in the Face with its own Weapon and Expire of its own Stupidity?" But all this is, of course, a ridiculous flight of fancy.

Quote:
For balrogs with non-diaphanous wings, please consult Fordim Hedgethistle's well known treatise "Vortex interference factors as Applied to Balrogs". Fordim's analysis takes the body-alone contribution (ESDU 89008 provides values for both First and Third Age Balrogs) and adds contributions from the wing (in the presence of the body) and from the change in body lift-curve slope due to the wing.
Can I get this on Interlibrary Loan? You know, I never even considered the contribution of translucency in the equation! I must go back and tease my hair out some more and scribble purposefully until it all comes clear!

Cheers!
Lyta
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