PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The Wright brothers just glided in 1903. They flew in 1908.
Old 14th Jun 2014, 19:52
  #446 (permalink)  
Haraka
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: South East of Penge
Age: 74
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FFS Simplex - just because somebody flew without ailerons does not necessarily make it a good idea
Yes , but the point is that many pioneers demonstrated well controlled flight without either ailerons or wing warping,showing, I suggest , that roll control cannot be argued as a prerequisite for controlled flight, as is still maintained by the Wrights' supporters' enclave and largely based upon U.S. experience alone.
If positive lateral stability has been deliberately designed in, ( by dihedral , sweepback or low c.of g., or a combination ) , pitch and yaw are sufficient for full control, , with bank coming in as a secondary effect of yaw as was well understood in Europe, controlled banked turns then being easily demonstrated.
Direct roll control was a refinement of course , as was the subsequent emergence on wings of a family of various flaps, slats, slots, balanced ailerons (inc. mass, aerodynamic and Frise) , servo tabs, l/e droop and spoilers.
Regarding the differential angles of wing incidence, claimed by the Wrights in patenting wing warping ( and aileron) claims for themselves , I offer up, as yet further evidence of European originality, the Pole Tański, who in the evolution of his work, adjusted models to fly in circles by differential wing incidence: as supported by photographic evidence ( of a sequence) of one of his large models in banked circling free flight in 1896. As he noted, birds changed their direction in flight flight by suitable deflections of their wings (no separate three-axis control imperative being required in natural flight. )
Ref: Jerzy Cynk. Polish Aircraft 1893-1939.Putnam.
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