Originally Posted by
Nick Thomas
I just wondered if there was any side slip problems etc due to the air flow being blocked to the vertical tail by the big delta wing especially at large AoA on landing? If so what was the undoubtably clever solution?
Hi Nick,
Your questions were already partly answered by NW1.
The solution was indeed in those two narrow strakes on the nose that generated a vortex on either side, the higher the AoA, the stronger.
Those two vortices "folded upwards", well before the leading edge of the wing, and around to the top of the fuselage, where they "stuck down" the air flow right to the end.
Hence the vertical tail was not "blanketed" by disturbed/turbulent air from the fuselage, and remained effective even at quite high angles of attack.
It was certainly a clever solution... but not new.
As
stilton said, it was already used on the MD80.
On Concorde they had already been tested in the windtunnel and found to be effective, so if you look at photos of prototype 001 on its very first flight you will see they're already in place.
Vortices are funny things... usually you don't see them, but they contain quite a lot of energy and persist for quite a long time before dissipating. That's why those two small planks on Concorde work so well.
CJ