Active load Control

[cheesedoff]

Fellow PPruners,

Could I trouble you to ask what 'Active Load Control' is? It is meant in the context of flying controls, rather that the movers at Lye! (bait prepared)

My initial thought steered me towards the VC-10?

Any help here would be appreciated. I have searched the web, however, it does not throw much up that makes sense.

Many thanks

[MrBernoulli]

Hmm, I think you are referring to the 'aileron upset' system (as in ailerons set 'up') which is turned on at certain weights and heights, to control spanwise lift load (and therefore the bending moment of the wing). I don't recall seeing any VC10-specific stuff on the web, but the C5 appears to have had a similar system described here:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760024060_1976024060.pdf

Try searching for 'active lift control' or 'active lift distribution control'. The current VC10 lot will be along shortly, I'm sure, to give you the full gen on their system. :ok:

[First_In_Last_Out]

There is a useful description here of the Active Control System fitted to the Tristar, which I think is the system which you are alluding to. It's about three quarters of the way down this article, complete with some handy pics :ok:

TriStar500.net | Features (http://www.tristar500.net/features.htm)

Hope it helps.

[glum]

The Tristar has it, called Active Control System.

Three lots of accelerometers: one in each wingtip and one in the fuselage.

They detect if the wings are flapping and apply opposite aileron to both wings to counter it.

The system also puts both ailerons up when flaps are lowered past a certain point to dump lift from the wing tips and move the envelope inboard so as not to overload the wing roots.

[Buster Hyman]

In a commercial sense, Active Load Control is when it doesn't TRIM with 10 mins to go. That's when you see a lot of activity & some harsh language too!