How Winglets Work

highbury731

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
John Britten's early experimentation into motorcycle aerodynamics included winglets- but MUCH larger than the ones on the Ducati MGP bikes shown in the video. Ironically, he did this first on a special powered by a bevel Ducati motor (known as the AERO-D-Zero) and later the first Denco V-twin powered machine (the AERO-D-One). There is documentation of these bikes on the John Britten engineering web-site http://www.britten.co.nz/ - see the History page.

You can see his first attempt in action at 10:56 in the John Britten documentary:

I seem to remember that John Britten also experimented with substantial wings pointing downwards at roughly 45 degrees, but have not found any documentation to back this up. Just to make that clearer, when cornering, one wing is horizontal above the banked bike, and the other vertical below it

Paul
 
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