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Old 7th Nov 2011, 18:02
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DozyWannabe
 
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The purpose of the experiments was not to provide any definitive data on stall characteristics, they were simply a technical exercise to determine if there were any obvious system problems or design deficiencies that would make recovery difficult, which it would appear there are not. We can say that with a significant degree of confidence for the A320 and a reasonable degree of confidence for the A330, as the systems designs for both share common parentage in terms of flight control requirements.

Aerodynamics is not my specialty and I'll defer to those who know better, but if I were to make an educated guess, given that a lot of the same people were involved in the airframe developement of the A320 and her larger sisters, I'd say it's a reasonable assumption to make that they are fairly docile in stall characteristics across the range. The TRE's opinion was that the A320 seems extremely docile in the stall if the sim behaviour was anything to go by - and this guy seemed to know what he was talking about - appearing to be a pilot's pilot of the old school through and through, with types from every pretty much every major manufacturer of the last 40 years under his belt.
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