Part 2/3: Side force generators - Forces and turning
About a month ago, I was presenting an idea to make drones faster on race tracks: The so called ‘side force generators’ (SFGs) enable racing drones to drift less during turns, making them potentially faster. The placement of the ‘wings’ is very critical and mentioned in more detail in my earlier post on SFGs . Some people tested the SFGs and confirmed the enhanced flight characteristics. Other people didn’t try and didn’t believe that SFGs could help. I must agree that the concept of the SFGs is not so easy to understand. That is why I will explain it in more detail here. Let’s start with something that everyone knows (figure 1). When you are going through a fast turn with your car, then your car needs to provide two forces to stay on the track (grey line): The ‘thrust’ (green) of your car needs to equal its aerodynamic and friction drag (yellow). When the car turns, then there needs to be a constant force towards the centre of the turn, called ‘centripetal force’ (red). This...
