Update (5/6/11): The Synergy Aircraft website has just gone live — check it out and donate!
Is this a vision of the future? Unveiled Friday, April 30, at the CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, the double-box tailed Synergy aircraft is being hailed as “a potential breakthrough in aircraft design.”
John McGinnis (EAA 797858) of Kalispell, Montana, has been quietly hashing out the aerodynamic theory behind this project on EAA’s Oshkosh365 forums, and it is very interesting reading for those so inclined.
From the EAA News article:
The “Synergy” name derives from the idea that the aircraft synergizes six proven aeronautical principles into a single, extremely efficient package. They are:
* Laminar flow
* Non-planar configuration
* Wake-immersed propulsion
* Open thermodynamic cycle
* Pressure thrust
* Optimum volumetric displacement waveformSynergy’s signature shape … creates extremely low induced drag – described by McGinnis as the “glider-like efficiency of a 46-foot wingspan packed into a much stronger 32-foot package.”
The best part about the whole project is that it’s being undertaken by a small group of dedicated folks, working out of a small garage/shop in northern Montana. True innovation always seems to come from the fringe, if you ask me.
So is this just wishful thinking, or the next big breakthrough in aeronautics?
Read more about the Synergy project unveiling on the EAA News site. For background on the project read “Six Steps to Synergy” on the CAFE Foundation blog, and “Beyond Streamlining: Drag Reduction in the 21st Century,” Mr. McGinnis’ in-depth thread on Oshkosh365.
