Have you ever?

**Cribbs74** Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:08 pm

Stuck your arm out of a moving car window and shaped your hand like a wing to create lift? I used to do it as a kid all the time and still find myself doing it when I drive down the road as an adult from time to time.

Make me wonder if Orville and Wilber did the same thing. Or those that went before them. I am sure a car wasn’t involved back then.

Anyway, dumb thought, just felt like sharing.

Ron

crankbndr Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:16 pm

I think it’s called “barn door lift” while growing up windows were always down and did that a lot. Now have AC and windows are never down. One time a wasp hit me between the fingers lol thanks for the memories I will do it again tomorrow. Very Happy

rdw777 Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:24 pm

Yep, did that as a kid…. It was halfway fun but maybe we were learning something too…

Ever watch a plastic bag or piece of paper get sucked up in lift and float hundreds of feet high? I bet the Wright brothers did similar as well….

MrGoodwreck Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:34 pm

Yup..

I also threw anything I could get my hands on out the window, if my parents were not looking. Shh

Coxfledgling Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:56 am

Lol, yep, me too, out of the train window coming home from school in summer time.

In summer the heating was on full blast and in winter it was always off !

Remember watching a documentary on the Wright's years ago. It showed a vertical shaft sticking up on the handle bars with an aerofoil either side to compare shapes. The better aerofoil produced better lift and showed it by moving more in the direction of "lift". They also made Thier own ohc engine.

A clever pair of engineers.

KariFS Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:39 am

All the time!

Also learned about the importance of the angle of attack when riding my bike downhill peddling as fast as I could, and having my baseball cap fly off... then slowing down and peddling back a few hundred ft (uphill of course) to fetch it. After a few times learned to sort of stoop forward a little more. Wearing a cap backwards was not a thing back then Very Happy

Kim Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:56 am

Oh Yeah...and like Crank, was even warned about "catching wasps or hornets" by Mom...though my soon-to-develop obsession with snakes and lizards would drop this in the order of her concerns for me.

There was a toy though...one of those you never got around to acquiring and bugs you through adulthood. It was a plane, suspended on some kind of stem just outside the car window, and was held in place by rolling up the window against its inverted "U"-shaped frame.

There was a kind of "cockpit" on the other end, with a stick that let you control it in the breeze as the car cruised down the road. I only saw it as a small drawing in catalog adds (or maybe in the back cover of a comic book), so can't remember any other details

In those days, my dad, who fancied himself a professional musician, kept us on the road to different cities, chasing his short-term gigs, and I logged a lot of flying time, pretending my outstretched hand was actually this toy plane.

Lots of good memories, and never caught wasp!

getback Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:25 am

O yes the fling hand , up , down , left . right and found out not to bee to loose when going really fast (as my Dad did sometimes ) . Bought jerk your arm right off lol!

crankbndr Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:03 am

Lot of debate about lift even today. How does a flat wing model fly? How can an asymmetrical airfoil fly upside down? How does a symmetrical airfoil create lift? You have to look to Newtons laws not Bernoulli

Marleysky Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:21 am

Flapping arms in the wind! Before the "wave" became popular at sporting events. GirlFriend (now wife) and I would Flap our arms in sync, me on the drivers side, her out the passenger window as we past other vehicles on the expressway.....just flying by in a red Corvette!!

cstatman Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:01 am

i still do this, hand out window - and am still fascinated with it

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