X-Mozilla-Keys:                                                                                 
Gary Wolf wrote:

        Is Colani really intending for his aircraft to fly? I remember him
as a designer of trendy watches. He designed a motorcycle later but I don't
know if it ran either. What I do remember is that it was very fluid and
futuristic in appearance and not very practical. He seemed to be more
interested in making a design statement than in having it function.

                                        Gary Wolf

We used to call it styling rather than design. We used to reserve
the word design for what an engineer does when he calculates the wing
area and exact fuselage shape and so forth for lowest drag not to
mention
stress. EVERYTHING must be taken into consideration
and compromises made. That is what a good engineer does. 
Van's RV's are excellent examples. The stylist usurped the word
"design".
They hate to be called stylist.

Haveing said all that the last Colani design effort looks pretty
practical.
The fan shape is typical for a high bypass un-ducted fan with transonic
supersonic tips. It should be real fast in a stright line.

I don't know how many G's the unlimiteds are pulling around the pylons
but if it is considerable the induced drag for a low span wing is also
considerable. Most delta wings are low span so for Reno you need
somewhat higher aspect ratios. The induced drag formula is C sub d 
equals C sub L squared over pi times the aspect ratio. There is also
what is called a span loading formula based on the amount of lift
required per foot of span.
 
Paul Lamar
 
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