Gurney Flaps

The answer on the question sheet was "ON A RACING CAR, HELICOPTER HORIZONTAL STABILIZERS AND BANNER TOWING AIRCRAFT".

As with the previous question, it would seem that the vetters' intervention, and the setter's response, has quite possibly ended up making matters worse.

The answer on the version sent for vetting was "ON A RACING CAR – IT'S AN AERODYAMIC AID".

One member of our team, not having heard of a Gurney flap before, looked it up on Wikipedia. This described a Gurney flap as "a small tab projecting from the trailing edge of a wing ... [which] can improve the performance of a simple airfoil to nearly the same level as a complex high-performance design". Wikipedia goes on to say that "Common applications occur in auto racing, helicopter horizontal stabilizers, and aircraft where high lift is essential, such as banner-towing airplanes." This latter piece of information was relayed to the setters, along with the comment: "I have no idea what any of this means, but 'racing car' seems not to be the only possible answer."

The Gurney flap was invented in the early 1970s by the American racing car designer, and former driver, Dan Gurney. After using it on his cars for many years, Gurney showed it to an aircraft designer, who realised that it could have significant benefits in his industry; he named it after its inventor and introduced it to his peers. It's now routinely used used on aeroplane wings and the horizontal stabilisers of helicopters.

As for the quiz question: it's debatable, I think, whether the final answer is any better than the original one. It admits the existence of alternative answers, but it's far from clear what the alternatives are.

This, I'm afraid to say, is basically a poor question. A rule of thumb that I always like to apply is: if the answer is longer than the question, either ask it the other way round or scrap it. I don't think this particular question can be asked the other way round, so my advice would have been to scrap it. If this was felt to be too drastic, the answer could have been changed to something like "On a wing – as part of a racing car, helicopter or aeroplane." Question masters should have been advised that "wing", "racing car", "helicopter" and "aeroplane" were all acceptable answers.