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Old 4th Mar 2003, 05:59
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: what U.S. calls Žold EuropeŽ
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To make the plane less vulnerable, the B52 uses fully manual controls. (no hydraulic with all the lines that can be shot at)
To limit rudder forces to the pilots capability, the depth of the rudder is just about 10% chord, much to small to handle a crosswind landing without castoring the wheels and touching down crabbed.
The elevator also has some technically very interesting feature, an internal force compensation inside the horizontal tail using the pressure difference between elevator upper and lower surface at the hinge line. The elevators nose is protuding far into the stabilizer and is sealed against it. So the forces on the control surface aft of the hinge are compensated by forces on front of it inside the stabilizer.
Cold war led to some amazing technical achivements in aviation.
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