PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Elevator-Downward or upward force?
View Single Post
Old 2nd May 2013 | 17:49
  #14 (permalink)  
phiggsbroadband
 
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 532
Likes: 0
From: Wales
Hi, if you are an aero designer (or easier still an aero-modeller.) you can put your front wing on the airplane in any position you want.

You can get the Centre of Pressure to coincide with the CofG, and the tailplane would need no angle of attack at all.
You could put the CofP in front of the CofG, and you would then need a lifting tailplane.

However for best Stability it has been proved, since the days of Wilbur and Orvile, that CofP behind CofG is best. This results in the tailplane having about 2-3 degrees less angle of attack that the Mainplane.
It also means that the Tailplane does not normally stall before the Mainplane, which could result in something like a tail-slide stall.
phiggsbroadband is offline  
Reply