Flaps and V-Tails of Death

(Bob Kuykendall) wrote in message . com...
Earlier, (Fred the Red Shirt) wrote:

On a related note it appears that
the Marske Monarch useds flaps
(and spoilers both ... this is
a flying wing with neither
elevator nor canards. I'm curious
as to how pitch is controlled.

I don't think that that's quite an accurate assessment of the Monarch
configuration.

The movable control surface on the wing inboard trailing edge performs
the same function as the elevator on a conventional tailed aircraft.
It responds to fore-and-aft motion of the stick and controls the pitch
attitude. It is sometimes (but not always) called an "elevon" on a
tailless aircraft. Its location aft of the CG gives it adequate moment
arm to perform its function.

I see. There was some discussion on the site of cg shifting for pitch
control but it was't clear if that was used in the Monarch or not. It
seems to me that it would be wasteful to add weight for that purpose
though I suppose you could put the pilot's seat on wheels and
roll him back and forth for pitch control.


Another interesting tailless aircraft is the Brightstar SWIFT, which
is a swept-wing tailless glider that uses flaps for pitch control. The
name is an acronym meaning Swept Wing with Inboard Flaps for Trim.

The sweep of the SWIFT wing places the flaps far enough forward so
that deflecting them down causes a pitch-up moment. The value of this
feature is that pitching up is done by effectively increasing the wing
camber, which better suits the wing to slower flight.


Oh, cool. The flaps are functionally similar to canards.

Thanks for the info.

--

FF