Thread: Wing dihedral
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Old March 17th 06, 03:25 PM posted to rec.aviation.student,rec.aviation.piloting
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Default Wing dihedral

Do you have a link?

Andrew included this explanation in his response which is the one I was
trying to recite (excerpt):

What, then, is the real explanation as to why a dihedral angle is an
aid to lateral stability? When the wings are both equally inclined the
resultant lift on the wings is vertically upwards and will exactly
balance the weight. If, however, one wing becomes lower than the other,
then the resultant lift on the wings will be slightly inclined in the
direction of the lower wing, while the weight will remain vertical.
Therefore the two forces will not balance each other and there will be
a small resultant force acting in a sideways and downwards direction.
This force is temporarily unbalanced and therefore the aeroplane will
move in the direction of this force - i.e. it will sideslip - and this
will cause a fow of air in the opposite direction to the slip. This ahs
the effect of increasing the angle of attach of the lower plane and
increasing that of the upper plane. The lower plane will therefore
produce more lift and a restoring moment will result. Also the wing tip
of the lower plane will become, as it were, the leading edge so far as
the slip is concerned; and just as the center of pressure across the
chord is nearer the leading edge, so the center of the pressure
distribution along the span will now be on the lower plane; for both
these reasons the lower plane will receive more lift, and after a
slight slip sideways the aeroplane will roll back into its proper
position. As a matter of fact, owing to the protetcion of the fuselage,
it is probably that the flow of air created by the sideslip will not
reach a large portion fo the raised wing at all; this depends very much
on the position of the wing relative to the fuselage.

William Snow wrote:
Take a look at "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators" NAVWEPS 00-80T-00, Page
295....