Originally Posted by
KenV
From the linked article:
Wait, what? "Deploy the spoilers to achieve the low speeds required...." Certainly this is an error. Could the author have meant "deploy the flaps?"
I'd think they do both: spoilers for aerobraking and flaps for maximum lift. Certainly the spoilers would create extremely turbulent airflow in their wake (their main function is to mess up the airflow). I assume they can't just throttle the engines further down for some reason, but that's just my armchair reasoning.