Spins, now super-stalls
OK I've learnt thanks to you good people re.spins & inputs !
Now for the big one - ever since reading Don Middleton's ' Test pilots - The History of British Test Flying ' - a truly excellent book - I've been a bit concerned whenever flying in anything with a T tail !
I can understand the desire to get the tailplane away from wing / engine wake & vibration - flutter ( do any modern airliners suffer this ? ) but the top of the fin seems an awful place to put the horizontal stablisers, re. leverage moment let alone deep stall.
I was assured by a Test Pilot that the little PA-44 in I was in wouldn't suffer a super-stall as long as the prop's were blowing across the wings; the obvious next question is ' what if they aren't ?!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a nervous flyer, just interested in what's going on ! I always try to be useful rather than ' sitting there' - and have alerted a fair few snags over the years -I've been present on plenty of stall tests & seriously daft ultra-low level flying, clandestine photo's for the police etc too.
I do feel for the Flight Test crew of George Errington's Trident, who managed to radio " we're in a superstall now " as they went down - what a horrible last few minutes that must have been...is there any way out of the situation such as asymetric thrust, or are anti-spin chute's or even a rocket to get beyond the thrust/drag curve the only answers ?
With the lack of forward airspeed, even an enterprising soul chucking a large draggy item out of a door might help ?
And no, I'm not thinking along the lines of 'Airport - The Concorde' - possibly the best comedy I've ever seen !
DZ