Thread: A-330 ailerons
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Old March 14th 05, 10:21 PM
Roy Smith
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M wrote:
I was sitting on a Northwest Airbus A-330 a few Sunday's ago at
Tokyo Narita airport waiting for everybody to board on the flight
back to Seattle, when I noticed something strange with the ailerons.
Both ailerons were at their full downward deflection at about 30
degrees.


I don't know the specifics of the A-330, but many modern (i.e. fly by
wire) jets use their control surfaces in all sorts of interesting ways
which would not be possible on a cable-pully-and-bellcrank system like
we've got in our spamcans.

On many jets, roll is controlled (as you observed) with a mix of
spoilers and ailerons, and both ailerons can move together to
effectively act as flaps.