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Thread: Tailplane lift
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Old 19th May 2012, 11:19
  #49 (permalink)  
TURIN
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: UK
Age: 58
Posts: 3,501
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My understanding of tail (trim tank) fuel is to reduce the amount of trim and therefore drag, not to swap pitch up trim for pitch down trim. The a/c still needs to be stable. Especially air transport category, to comply with regulations. Think about failure modes. If engines are lost with the a/c in non normal trim, hand flying, whether it be fly by wire in direct law or traditional control systems, will be very tough for an average pilot. Military a/c performance is a completely different kettle of fish.
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