On 01/05/2015 10:11, charles wrote:
In article ,
Nightjar cpb@ insert my surname here.me.uk wrote:
....
There are ways to reduce drag, such as a micro perforated skin with
suction to remove boundary layer turbulence and create laminar flow.

This was being tested at Cambridge in 1962! The relevant professor
bemoaned the fact that the cheapest commodity in the aviation industry was
concrete.


I don't know when it was, but I do know that, in one set of trials, an
Airspeed Oxford was fitted with an auxiliary engine to run the pump. The
idea was revived again in the 1990s, but for supersonic aircraft.

--
Colin Bignell