DIYbanter - View Single Post - Fwd: Reno Air Race

Richard[_9_]

On 9/28/2011 6:15 PM, wrote:

Another way of looking at air racing - to go fast you need to reduce
LIFT to the absolute minimum required to keep the plane at the desired
altitude - so the LIFT REQUIRED is only the weight of the plane. The
lift PRODUCED increases dramatically with airspeed. The only way to
correct for the massively inreased lift at speed is to CHANGE the
angle of attack of the lifting surface(wing)- and the way to do that
is to raise and lower the elevator/horizontal stabilizer hanging out
back at the end of the "lever" that is the fuselage. Changing and
controlling that angle of attack takes significant force - produced by
the lift of the "elevator" - which is controlled by changing the angle
of attack of the elevator. The angle of attack of the elevator is
"trimmed" by the trim tab to neutralize the control input required to
produce straight and level flight - so only CONTROL input is required
by the pilot. If he wants to lower the tail - he provides input to
lower the tail. If he wants to raise the tail, he provides input to
raise the tail - he does not raise the tail by reducing the input that
is keeping the tail down - nor does he lower the tail by reducing the
input keeping the tail up. He just says "tail up" or "tail down" and
the plane follows his instructions.

And some planes have "flying tails" that constantly provide positive
lift in level flight - while other planes have "reverse flying tails"
that contantly provide down-force in level flight. Just look at the
airfoil configuration of the rear stabilizer/elevator on, say, a
Zenith 701 and compare it to, say, a cessna 172.

I wonder what he'd think about a flying wing?
Is it still "nose heavy" if it has no nose?
Or tail??