PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Wing heaviness VS IAS
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Old 5th Dec 2010, 01:33
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galaxy flyer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Where the Quaboag River flows, USA
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"Aileron reversal" was a characteristic of the B-47, the first large-scale production plane with aeroelasticity designed into the wing structure. Being flexible, at high IAS, the action of the ailerons would twist the wing to the degree that would overcome the desired roll input. When descending into low level routes, the pilot would allow the airspeed to build to a point where aileron inputs became ineffective at producing roll in the desired direction due to wing flex. The route was then flown at a speed below that. Each plane was rather individual in it's flexing, within a narrow range around 410 KIAS. The B-52, I believe used spoilers to overcome this problem, having very flexible wings.

Most Boeing airliners (707, 727 and 747, 757, 767, I can't say about the 737 or 777) had inboard and outboard ailerons, the outboards locked in trail after the leading edge devices were retracted. I doubt very much if Boeing was anticipating high IAS at low levels, however. The planes did need the roll authority in normal operations provided by outboard ailerons.

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