What happens if a sailplane has no horiz stabilizer or elevator?

On 14 Jan 2004 20:15:24 -0700, (Mark James Boyd)
wrote:

Hmmm...methinks some sort of pully system in a plain old glider
might do it. Get a weight of the right size so that
if it lodges in the tail, you are still within safe CG, and if
it lodges in the nose, you are still within safe CG.

Maybe this is only a 1 pound weight. Then have an additional control
which moves this weight. Go up to altitude and see if moving
this weight gives sufficient control.


Just imagine what forces your movable weight will exert under a g load
different than 1? For example, when you are flying through a vertical
gust?

This is precisely the cause why your idea cannot work - and why the
pilot of a hang glider is hanging so far *below* his wing.



The biggest safety feature would be ensuring the weight didn't
come loose during a critical phase of flight (near the ground)
and your supplementary "weight" cables don't hinder
the original controls in any way...

A weight right in the tail which moves maybe 3 feet forward
when the auxiliary stick is moved might do it. Hmmm...


Have you ever thought about what is regarded as the most important
invention of the Wright brothers?
You name it - aerodynamical control around all three axes.

There's a good cause why there was never such a system that ever
worked on an aircraft, although thousands of designers have tried it
in the pas 120 years.


Bye
Andreas