Ian P. wrote:Just a little thought RE the apparent slot/vent on the nose hump, has anyone considered the aero characteristics of hollow point ammunition?
Such ammo might appear to have the aero characteristics of a house brick, but is actually pretty good. The trick apparently is that the area directly in front of the hollow point forms a sort of bubble of high pressure air, which is what then encounters the oncoming air first, making the effective nose of the projectile a rounded ball, which has much better aero.
Or am I way off the mark here?
For the bullet case, you are probably on target.
Unfortunately while F1 cars are fast, they are definitely sub-sonic. The bullet case is supersonic with considerably different flow characteristics. F1 cars also don't spin around their long axis at high rates (150K RPM).
Anyone taking wagers on how long before another one of these aero-slots shows up??
The pellet's shown (note, pellets not bullets) are for air weapons. These are absolutely subsonic, and depending upon the weapon firing them, are sometimes not too far away from F1 speeds.
For example some CO2 pistols achieve as little as 350 feet per second muzzle velocity, which is approximately 238 MPH. The speed of sound at sea level is 1,116 feet per second for comparison.
I'm not saying that this backs up the suggestion, rather that being subsonic is not a reason why this wouldn't work.
I do concede the point however regarding rotation. I don't know if that would have any bearing on the effectiveness or not. I understand that the rotation (imparted from rifling) is to make the projectile behave somewhat like a gyroscope and maintain it's attitude, but I suppose it could also play into the effectiveness or not of a hollow point RE aero.
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