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Old 5th Apr 2009, 20:04
  #28 (permalink)  
Dengue_Dude
 
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The reason the outboard aileron is active on the Tristar was quite rightly to offload the outer wing which would be overstressed if it didn't have it.

It was quite clever by offloading the outer wing to push the centre of lift inboard, forward thus raising the nose if a certain 'g' threshold was reached.

BUT when you hang a tonne of ironmongery under this outer wing, it upsets all the calculations and is not doable within the budgets pertaining at the time. Ergo, it was the wrong aircraft.

Having flown both, I preferred the Tristar for crew comfort. The DC10 is a stronger aircraft wing outboard - even Lockheed admitted that they use a 'light weight' structure outboard to reduce weight and increase aerodynamic efficiency.

Most modern jets lock out the outer ailerons as they are unnecessary in high speed cruise.

The point was (and is) that the DC10 was the better flight refuelling platform and all the 'artists' impressions' in the world don't affect reality.

So - have they sussed out where to hang the Mk32 pods yet?
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