At 08:30 24 February 2005, Mark James Boyd wrote:
Neat on the Duchess and the Aero Commander (twin engine
planes)
but haven't heard of it in competition gliders.
Also haven't heard of rudder-aileron interconnect for
gliders.
The Nimbus 4 has a mechanism whereby full rudder operates
a small portion of aileron at the tip so as to counteract
the adverse yaw at the expense of a reduced roll rate.
I have heard that some big jets, perhaps 737 and such,
use spoilers
for additional roll authority as well.
And the U-2 was rumored to have twisting trailing edge
landing gear,
so landing in a crosswind in a crab was fine.
Don't know about the U2 but I believe the B52 incorporates
both of these features, it has no ailerons at all,
entirely relying on differential spoilers for roll
control. Allows a lighter wing with less torsional
stiffness at the expense of awful handling 'feel' and
all of the wheels steer to allow crabbing on the ground,
both for taxying through small (small is a relative
term when you've got a 56m wingspan) gaps and landing
in cross winds.
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