Ailerons Stalling?
Heya,
I'm doing a presentation on how control systems have developed since the Wright Brothers and I have come up with a question regarding high angles of attack and rolling.
Firstly, I am unsure exactly how an aileron works, is it:
a) Increases/decreases overall curvature of wing hence increasing/decreasing lift of the whole wing
b) Increasing/decreasing the angle of attack of the aileron (which is in effect a small wing itself) causes force to be applied in terms of pressure and so rolls the aircraft
c) a mixture of both
(Sorry if those definitions aren't clear, if anyone wants I will try to clarify them)
Assuming it is b) or c) when an aircraft is in a steep climb close to an angle of attack which will induce a stall, rolling the aircraft right or left (may need to be quite a high roll rate so large deflection) will cause one of the ailerons to increase its angle of attack. As the aircraft is close to a stall angle any increase in AOA of a control surface would lead to the control surface stalling?
In this situation would a roll actually occur based on the fact the wing, which is supposed to roll upwards, has the high angle of attack aileron which may be stalled?
The same question applies to elevator deflection, from a high angle of attack attempting to pitch the nose down would result in an increased angle of attack of the elevators and so the tail would essentially stall so the plane would instead pitch upwards?
Any opinions or information on this would be appreciated as it has got me thinking and I just can't seem to come up with a definite yes or no answer
Regards
Alistair Strong