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Similarly to prior research on annular wing design, a conceptual aircraft using annular

wing design was simulated through Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR), a computer software
used to simulate the aerodynamics of aircraft, along with a conventional aircraft with the same
wingspan in order to determine and compare their lift, drag, and wing area data. The coefficients
of lift (CL), coefficients of drag (CD), angle of attack (AoA), wing area, and weight are indicated
in Table 1 (See appendix). Expectedly, the annular wing design was able to produce more lift
than the conventional aircraft and exhibited a significantly larger wing area. Unexpectedly, the
annular wing produced more drag and required a higher AoA than a conventional aircraft.
The prior research of both Prandtl (1924) and Foong and Djojodihardjo (2012) claimed
that the annular wing design is superior to the conventional wing design by increasing lift and
reducing drag; however, the results show that this is not always the case. As shown in Table 1,
the CL does in fact increase with the annular wing design, but the CD and AoA, on the other
hand, is shown to be inferior to the conventional aircraft.
With regards to these results, the experts consulted by the researchers explain that there
are two kinds of drag: induced drag and skin friction drag. While the annular wing design
reduces the induced drag by eliminating the turbulence produced at the wingtips by a
conventional wing, it increases the skin friction drag due to the additional second wing which
almost doubles the area affected by air (wetted area). In the case of the annular wing design, the
increase in wing area - almost double the area of the conventional wing - resulted in an increase
in the wetted area, which resulted in an overall increase in drag. In response, the experts
recommended the researchers to conduct another experiment in order to determine the difference
in drag between the annular wing design and the conventional design with a constant wetted
area.

Another feature noted by the aforementioned experts is the increase in weight. Due to the
fact that the annular wing design is essentially a second wing joined to the first at the tip by
vertical boards, a significant increase in weight is observed. This increase, according to the
experts, serves to limit the advantage of annular wing design over the conventional wing design
because an increase in weight requires a proportional increase in lift; and lift increases
proportionally with drag.
This study proved that the annular wing design is not always superior to the conventional
wing design given the same wingspan. Although this study has identified the advantages and
disadvantages of the annular wing design with an equal wingspan to a conventional wing design,
the researchers suggest a similar study to be conducted in order to determine and explore the
advantages and disadvantages of an annular wing design with an equal wing area.

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