As the old saying goes,<\/SPAN> in order to run, first you must walk<\/EM>. Whilst this may sound like the advice of a wizened old Jedi Master (although that might be something more like \u201cto run, walk first you must!\u201d) the idea must still hold true that <\/SPAN>in order to jump into hyperspace, first you have to fly<\/EM>. Prior to the release of the Force Awakens* this got me thinking, given how much time is spent flying around in any given planet\u2019s atmosphere \u2013 could the Millennium Falcon, arguably the most iconic spaceship of all time, actually fly? Given how easy it is to predict aerodynamic performance with STAR-CCM+, and how quickly the surface wrapper can be applied to complex shapes, I felt it would be fun to try and find out. <\/SPAN><\/P> <\/P> It may not look very aerodynamic at first, however given the ratio of its cross sectional area to its length, the Falcon already has a basic aerodynamic shape. If you sketch it in 2D it’s already approaching a \u201csymmetric\u201d aerofoil shape. Symmetric aerofoils are useful, however when they have no angle of incidence to the oncoming airflow they produce next to no lift, given this I decided to give it a modest 2\u00b0 nose-up pitch at 600 km\/h. It wasn\u2019t until I analysed the aerodynamic forces \u201clive\u201d within the simulation that I could see that it may actually fly.<\/SPAN><\/P> <\/P> <\/p>\n
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