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Old 12th May 2012, 12:38
  #22 (permalink)  
italia458
 
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Microburst... there is a lot more that contributes to airplane stability than just AC (aerodynamic center) and CG! Here is a tiny excerpt from 'Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators' that talks a little about the effects of the horizontal tail.

http://i.imgur.com/MuQSF.png

You said AC at the beginning but then started talking about CP (center of pressure). It's generally the AC that's used when working with stability. The AC is the point where the wing pitching moment coefficient doesn't vary with lift coefficient. At subsonic speeds it generally remains stationary at 25% chord. "All changes in lift coefficient effectively take place at the wing aerodynamic center. Thus, if the wing experiences some change in lift coefficient, the pitching moment created will be a direct function of the relative location of the AC and CG." - Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators

If wing aoa increases, so does tailplane's. Can't be otherwise.
I don't believe so. When the tailplane is producing a downforce, which in most airplanes it is, when you increase your AoA on the wing, the tailplane's AoA will decrease. The best way to see this is to visualize the airplane in level flight, slowing down, and increasing its wing's AoA. As the airplane is pitching up, the air striking the tailplane is hitting it more on the underside. This is reducing the AoA on the tailplane. Virtually everything is the opposite when it comes to a tailplane that produces downward lift.

You might have heard that, in icing conditions, putting flaps down can really aggravate the condition and possibly enter the airplane into a tailplane stall. That's because it's deflecting the air downwards, even more, right before the tail. The more downwards air from the wing, the higher the AoA on the tailplane. It's also why the tailplane stall recovery procedure is to pull back on the yoke and pretty much undo what you just did - ie: take the flaps up.

Edit: Microburst, you mentioned that stability and equilibrium are different. I do agree that they are different, but not separate. Equilibrium is a part of stability.

Last edited by italia458; 12th May 2012 at 12:41.
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