Pontius –
I don’t necessarily disagree with your comments – in fact, the one about jet pilots becoming “lazy” because they aren’t regularly required to use the rudder is dead-on correct. That is why I say most jet pilot training programs are very incomplete without including a series of training tasks where the rudder is used. However, the primary point I was making was about coordinated flight. Most of the time this “coordination” becomes an issue during normal operations during a turn – of course, that coordination becomes an issue with or without turning when experiencing engine malfunctions and asymmetrical flight control drag – all of which are corrected with proper use of rudder to regain and maintain coordinated flight.
Also, while the pure understanding of engines mounted on the aft fuselage vs. mounted under-wing gives one the impression of requiring more rudder for asymmetrical thrust situations with wing-mounted engines than with fuselage-mounted engines is understandable, that actually isn’t exactly true. The reason for this anomaly in understanding is that with the engines mounted on the fuselage, the aerodynamicists that designed the airplane got away with using less vertical fin area and a correspondingly less rudder surface area – in the interest of saving weight. Therefore, when an engine malfunction occurs on the aircraft with aft fuselage-mounted engines – the amount of rudder pedal control required is actually at least as much as required on airplanes where the engines are mounted under-wing. Ask any DC-9/MD-88 pilot.
And, a note for DenizD … while the B2 certainly looks like it hasn’t any horizontal control (rudder), by using the computer to deftly apply those split ailerons appropriately, the B2 yaw control is maintained quite nicely. As said, EVERY airplane needs something to keep it coordinated.