Slats and Fowler Flaps On Light Plane

On 25 Jul 2003 06:51:08 -0700, (Brock) wrote:

I feel there is a real advantage to the use of slats and flaps in

Slats can work great, but they are a double edged sword. They have to
come out together...Not even one a second earlier than the other. The
Germans had a devil of a time with them on their early attempts.

Then those suckers come out, they come out *now* with plenty of force.

As to fowler flaps, I'm going to have them on the G-III. The factory
makes a kit to replace the standard flaps and they do shave a few
knots off the landing speed.

order to have things happen slowly during landing and yet still have a
good cruise speed. Of course the problem is in the complexity and the
extra weight. For rails I was thinking about something like standard
kitchen drawer rails or perhaps a tube within a tube design. I
wouldn't think their would be a lot of force on the slat at low

When they hit the end of their travel they are really moving. They
"snap" out. Going back in is no biggie from the force standpoint, but
like extension they have to go back in together.

takeoff speeds so the structure wouldn't have to be bullet proof,
their would probably be a lot more force on the flaps though. I

Typically the only ones I've seen were on a curved track and
counterbalanced. If there is an F-84 in your neighborhood, see if
they will let you take a look at how the slats work.

It's one of those simple concepts that works great and can be
difficult to implement.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)

haven't been able to find information if the necessary airplane
hardware is available commercially, perhaps it would have to be custom
made. Any ideas on how to go about building something like this?

Brock