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Old 12th July 2011 | 22:19
  #193 (permalink)  
bubbers44
 
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: fl
Bear is correct about the airfoil of the horizontal stabilizer causing downward thrust making the aircraft stable. Soon after the Wright Flyer this was incorporated into most aircraft. Using the term upward lift confuses the issue because an increase of airspeed in stable flight will cause a downward force on the horizontal stabilizer bringing the nose up to stable flight. This negative lift or what ever you want to call it requires the wing to supply more lift to compensate for that effective extra weight.

Airbus used fuel transfer to get the CG as far aft as possible to eliminate some of the effective weight the wings had to carry. I have seen race planes lose their tails and they immediately dive into the ground because of the loss of down force on the tail.
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