Comment Re:Forget bombs, think hurricanes and tornados! (Score 1) 388
The reason for symmetrical wings on aerobatic aircraft is that they impede the flow even more and allow much greater control, at the expense of fuel efficiency.
Wanted to clarify this. The reason for symmetric airfoils on fighter aircraft is that camber provides no additional lift (compared to a flat plate) in a supersonic flow. Lift coefficient is still linearly proportional to angle of attack at supersonic speeds. However, drag coefficients rise quadratically with increasing camber/thickness. Thus, supersonic fighters have very thin, very symmetric airfoils.
http://books.google.com/books?id=woeqa4-a5EgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=anderson+compressible#v=onepage&q=&f=false
I think, sir, that you're talking a bit out of your ass. Supersonic fighters have thin airfoils for aerodynamic reasons but they are by no means required to be symmetrical. The F15 and F16 (both supersonic capable aircraft) have cambered airfoils. Drag increases as the square of the lift coefficient - camber increases the lift coefficient for a given angle of attack, and thus camber increases induced drag (the component of drag associated with lift).
The reason stunt planes have symmetrical wings has to do with the fact that symmetric wings are more efficient when flying upside-down than a heavily cambered wing. That is a state that most other airplanes actively try to avoid. You get the same amount of lift out of the wing at the same angle of attacks. The reason why they're thick is because thicker wings allow you to delay stall. Since stunt planes fly slowly, you don't really have to worry about the efficiency of the wing. That and stunt planes are NOT optimized for aerodynamic efficiency - simply the ability to generate tons of lift quickly.
Next time you cite one of Dr. Anderson's wonderful text books, please read it first.