Originally Posted by
SteinarN
I found a picture of the A320. It seems like the elevator, as a percentage of the stabilizer, is quite a bit larger.
Compared the the B737
basic lever - the shorter the body length and the shorter the length from CG, the more ' force' is needed to tilt ( aoa ) or stop yaw ( if one engine out ). The longer the body- distance from CG, the less the force needed for normal AOA correction or yaw correction. Since the force needed is generally a function of size or AREA acted on by air pressure/lift - a longder body can allow a smaller area for control surfaces ( overly simplified ) then come the cost of designing a new smaller area or simply staying the same as current production, etc
And I think you ment the horizontal stabilizer- not the elevator ??
And if yoiu not the hight of the smallet airbus VERTical stabilizer it is longer than the longer airbus - for generally the same reasons