Patent ID: 6892989

Claim:
A method for reducing the drag of a vehicle having a forebody and a base, comprising irregularly coarsening a surface of the vehicle in order to increase drag along the coarsened surface, thereby reducing drag aft of the coarsened surface, whereby approximately ⅓ of the forebody of the vehicle is coarsened, wherein the vehicle is a flight vehicle, whereby the coarsening is accomplished by attaching a coarsening agent to the vehicle surface, the coarsening agent being applied to approximately ⅓ of the forebody of the vehicle, the coarsening agent having an average diameter of approximately 0.035 inches, whereby the coarsening agent is suspended in paint, wherein the coarsened surface has an equivalent sand-grain roughness of between approximately 0.02 and 0.05 inches, whereby MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) controllers are used to adaptively vary the coarsened surface equivalent roughness according to Mach number.