PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Definition of Primary Flight Controls? And MCF required?
Old 28th January 2013 | 20:24
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sevenstrokeroll
 
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,656
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From: fort sheridan, il
do a hover

I was responding to a question about airplanes...the harrier really is something a bit different...I imagine if you took the wings off you could get it up in the air for awhile.

so, vtol vehicles aside.

one must also remember at some point secondary flight controls may become primary upon failure of some primary flight controls.

thrust levers/throttles can in some planes produce pitch change or yaw change

are throttles primary flight controls? no...they are engine controls, but they can be used to fly a plane if you lose other things (pitch more so on underwing mounted engines)

good luck...I do remember reading an article which may prove interesting...the US Air Force had developed an autopilot program which could use secondary controls to return a battle damaged plane to the ground safely...using the sioux city, ia, DC10 accident as a guideline.

I also remember a Delta L1011 taking off out of KSAN, and the elevators jamming. great throttle work saved the plane

an extensive discussion of secondary flight controls becoming primary made a lasting impression on me...of course finding these article from over 30 years ago might be hard.
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