Thunder Chicken
Resident Lua Script Rabble-Rouser
Do you have any data for the lift and drag characteristics for ellipsoids? It should exist. Note that the airfoil lift L and drag force D and the coefficients are related to dynamic pressure like this:
[math] L = {C_L} {A_p} {\rho} {V^2}/2[/math]
[math] D = {C_D} {A_p} {\rho} {V^2}/2[/math]
where [imath]{A_p}[/imath] is the plan area of the wing (the projected area of the the wing as seen from above). For blunt objects like spheres and ellipsoids, the literature lift and drag coefficients [imath] {C_{L,f}}[/imath] and [imath] {C_{D,f}}[/imath] are typically defined based on the projected frontal area [imath]{A_f}[/imath]. You can translate that those coefficients to the planar area coefficients needed by the airfoil definitions by relating the coefficients times areas:
[math] {C_L} {A_p} = {C_{L,f}} {A_f} \longrightarrow {C_L} = {C_{L,f}} {A_f}/{A_p}[/math]
[math] {C_D} {A_p} = {C_{D,f}} {A_f} \longrightarrow {C_D} = {C_{D,f}} {A_f}/{A_p}[/math]
Mathematically you can just make the airfoil plan area [imath]{A_p}[/imath] equal to 1 square meter to keep thing simple. If you do the above transformation you'll get acceptable results.
