This is an earlier experiment. Read the amendments below before treating its findings as current.

The question

At 16 m/s, is the wing's loss its lag, its weak acceleration or other limits? Do the ideal craft's high-speed losses repeat?

What was tested

The wing at 16 m/s with lag varied from 0 to 1 s, and with acceleration doubled to 4 m/s², with and without lag; six ideal-craft (instant-response) runs each at 22 and 30 m/s.

What was found then

Losses climb steadily with lag, 13 to 51 per run, read then as about three quarters of the loss. Without lag the wing still loses 10–16 per run; the ideal craft, none. Doubled acceleration cut 51 → 38, short of the mark set in advance, and 13 → 6 without lag, yet the wing's closest approaches stayed about twice as deep as the ideal craft's under the same spacing rules. The ideal craft lost craft in 2 of 6 runs at 22 m/s and 1 of 6 at 30, read then as isolated pair events. Both reviewers then voted to close the stage.

What we learned later

LATER / CYCLE 122

Withdrawn: the 'three quarters is lag' share. Changing lag also changes the spacing and the look-ahead, and the causes interact; only the contrast of 51 against 13 stands.

research/envelope.md:4191

LATER / CYCLE 123

Withdrawn: 'the lag-free wing is close to the ideal craft'; its close calls go twice as deep, and it loses craft in every run.

research/envelope.md:4147

LATER / CYCLE 124

Withdrawn: 'isolated pair events'. Losses came in 3 runs (10 craft, 5 collisions), with close-call time far above what clean runs show.

research/envelope.md:4112

What changed

Nothing.

Numbers and source references
13 / 19 / 25 / 38 / 51
wing craft lost per run at 16 m/s, lag 0 / 0.25 / 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 sresearch/envelope.md:4191
10–16
lag-free wing losses per run at 16 m/s (ideal craft 0)research/envelope.md:4191
2 → 4 m/s²
horizontal acceleration in the doubled armresearch/envelope.md:4147
51 → 38
wing losses per run with doubled acceleration, preset lagresearch/envelope.md:4147
13 → 6
the same with no lagresearch/envelope.md:4147
0.40–0.46 vs 0.21–0.24
worst breach depth, lag-free wing at 4 m/s² vs ideal craft, identical separationresearch/envelope.md:4147
2 of 6 / 1 of 6
ideal-craft runs with losses at 22 / 30 m/sresearch/envelope.md:4112
12 / 6
new runs in the lag and acceleration testsresearch/envelope.md:4191; research/envelope.md:4147
Original structured record ↗