"John Keeney" wrote:
"Gord Beaman" wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

In other words, in your scenario above when the pilot increases
the wing angle of incidence (7-deg's), he simultaneously adjusts
his pitch and throttle settings as needed so as to remain stabilized
on the glideslope. He just doesn't gaily "pop the AoI switch" and
then react to what the airplane does...he thinks ahead and anticipates
what the airplane will do and plans accordingly (e.g: "fly the
plane" and pitch for airspeed power for altitude" etc.).

Of course Mike, I understand that but I just broke it down so
that it's easier for me to describe.

I still don't see what this AoI control will do _other_ than
give the pilot better downward visibility for landing and less
drag for high speed operation. Is there some other aspect that
I'm not seeing?...or is that it in a nutshell?...

As I mentioned in my response to you (the important part that you
snipped), besides just increasing the visibility, the variable
incidence wing also enabled the sleek and very fast fighter to
maintain the slower speeds required for carrier ops.

In other words Gord, the variable incidence wasn't designed to give
the F-8 "less drag for high speed operation," it was designed to give
the F-8 MORE drag (as the result of more LIFT) for SLOW speed
operation in order to land aboard carriers.

Also, if you peddle back to that website that you posted depicting
a close-up of the Crusader's wing in the raised position, you will
clearly see how the raised portion of the wing assembly directly
above the fuselage is flat as a sheet of plywood and protrudes
right into the relative wind -- effectively functioning as a speed
brake.

a) Improved visibility over the nose, that's good.
b) Greater clearance for the tail, that's good.
c) Thrust line stays closer to horizontal. Good? Not sure...
Any thing else?

I could be wrong, but I don't see any reason why the thrust line
staying closer to horizontal would be a "bad" thing. In the event
of a waveoff the pilot simply has to light the burner and go around
w/o making any drastic adjustments in angle of attack because
the raised wing is already configured for takeoff.

A & b would seem significant when making carrier landings.

Agreed. Although the 20-30 kt. wind over the deck is laminar
and smooth, the part curling down over the fantail is not which
can cause a sudden increase in rate of sink at precisely the
most inopportune time (e.g: ramp strike!)

-Mike Marron