Gurney Flap

A Gurney flap is an aerodynamic component, named after its inventor, Dan Gurney, a former Formula 1 driver. Gurney has the rear wing added as owner of his Indycar team All American Racers during test drives in 1971 a spoiler. These are small flaps or metal bracket at the end of an aerodynamic profile ( spoiler ). Their size is about one percent of the wing chord length. The flaps are usually at a 90 ° angle to the profile. Their function is in auto racing, the magnification of the contact force of the car on the streets with only slight increase in air resistance. In auto racing, the flaps are thus placed on the top of the profile. At production vehicles can be found Gurney flaps at various Porsche 911 GT3 on the rear wing.

Recent research also examine the possible uses in other applications such as wind turbines or high-lift systems on aircraft. At Airbus, these flaps hot MiniTEDs (Mini Trailing Edge Devices, see also adaptive wing ) and are attached to the underside of the wing tips ( ailerons and flaps ). They should be due to their rapid mobility also able to actively compensate for gusts.

Gurney flap increases the pressure on the high pressure side, reducing the pressure on the suction side and thereby helps the boundary layer to be on the suction side to the end of the wing.