On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 20:44:33 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:

From the reading that I have done, the air loads for an over gross airplane
are less than a plane that is light. This is from the idea that calculated
maneuvering speeds (speeds allowed in turbulence) are allowed to be higher
with a heavy airplane.

From a simplified point of view, the highly loaded wing will slip (mushing
instead of grabbing a good bite of the air) when loaded, producing less G
than a light airplane with the wing grabbing the air easily, and changing
directions quickly, producing more G's.

Taking off on a rough field while heavy or landing heavy could still hurt
the airplane, I guess, though.

What do you all think? Is this a valid line of thought?

No.

The maneuvering speed is the speed at which the wing at CLmax (just
before it stalls, talking accelerated stall here) won't exceed the
design load factor.

It isn't really about the G's... the aircraft's structure is designed
to not fail at the design load factor (e.g. +4.4 for utility category,
etc.). A lightly loaded aircraft can actually safely pull more G's
than a heavily loaded aircraft while not exceeding the structural
limits, but the speed at which the structure can be overloaded is the
same.

If all the variable load was carried in the fuselage (i.e. no wing
tanks) then the maneuvering speed would be the same regardless of
loading. Moving the weight outboard in the wings would change the
stress distribution and, depending on the design, could well increase
the acceptable maneuvering speed, but it's not a blanket statement...
nor is it a matter of a "highly loaded wing slipping".

-Dana
--
--
If replying by email, please make the obvious changes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The lion and the lamb may lie down together, but the lamb won't get much sleep.