Jim wrote in message . ..

I had never thought of this. Will an aircraft actually turn, that is,
change its direction of flight, if it is not allowed to bank at all?
I know that a clumsy kind of turn might be accomplished by use of
rudder only but I thought that was because the yaw would eventually
lead to a bank - due to the increased lift of the 'outer' wing caused
by the yaw.

Absolutely. In fact, in the early days of aviation, when airplanes
were so underpowered that any bank resulted in a descent, flat
"skidding" turns were considered by many to be the only "relatively"
safe way to turn.

I flew last friday, and having some altitude to spare, tried some flat
turns. Level wings, feed in rudder, opposite aileron to maintain
wings level, nose down to maintain airspeed. After a while, let off
the rudder, and sure enough, you will have turned a little. Very
inefficiently, by the way!

It helps to have a fuselage with a lot of vertical surface, which my
LS6 obviously does not. And while turning, it is very hard to tell
what your heading will be when you let off the rudder. Kinda fun to
do, and not all that easy to do well.

Kirk