Gurney Flap
A Gurney Flap is an aerodynamic component named after its inventor Dan Gurney , a former Formula 1 driver. As the owner of his Indycar team All American Racers, Gurney added a spoiler lip to the rear wing during test drives in 1971. These are small flaps or sheet metal angles at the end of an aerodynamic profile ( wing ). Their size is approximately one percent of the length of the wing chord. The flaps are usually at a 90 ° angle to the profile. Their function in automobile sport is to increase the pressure of the car on the road with only a slight increase in air resistance. In automotive sports, the flaps are thus arranged on the top of the profile. Gurney flaps can be found on the rear wing of various Porsche 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4 vehicles .
More recent research is also investigating the possible uses in other areas of application such as wind turbines or high-lift systems on aircraft . At Airbus , these flaps are called MiniTEDs (Mini Trailing Edge Devices, see also Adaptive Wings ) and hang on the underside of the wing tips ( ailerons and landing flaps ). Due to their quick mobility, they should also be able to actively compensate for gusts .
The Gurney Flap increases the pressure on the overpressure side and reduces the pressure on the suction side and thus helps the boundary layer to lie on the suction side up to the end of the wing.