gordonroxburgh
If the Flight article from the 80s that says only 10 hrs of flying was done is correct, it can only have been for limited in flight handling and not anything approaching the limits of the understood flight envelope......and I sure you would not have been contemplating take offs and landings
It matters not I'm afraid Gordon. I would not have thought that anyone would design ANY flying control system, experimental or otherwise, that does not have full potential authority in all axis.
As we do not know what the PROPOSED flight regime was, on the part of SFENA and Aerospatiale,we also can not assume that any particular manoeuvr would not have been considered. (But as I said before, it would be great to find out the whole story).
The limited authority for roll autostabilisation (and hence Emergency Flight Control) was of course a very deliberate piece of design. (You could test the Emergency Pilot on the ground at ADC Test 2 (Which simulated several seperate overspeeds, including Vmo +20) and when you put in a roll demand (against some resistance), only the MIDDLE elevons deflected. It really looked wierd on the ICOVOL as well as outside the aircraft.
(To any chaps or chapesses who are not aware, above Vmo+20 KCAS, a system known as OUTER ELEVON NEUTRALISATION was invoked, where any input demand to the outer elevons was met by an automatic equal and OPPOSITE input, that of course completely neutralised the demand, giving a zero OUTER elevon deflection).
Best regards
Dude
