Control reversal: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:14, 18 December 2003

Revision as of 00:50, 6 February 2004

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This problem was notorious on the [[Supermarine Spitfire]]. A series of upgrades to the wing structure helped eliviated the problem to some degree, but improvements in engine power typically offset it. This continued until a new internal design was introduced on the late-war Mark XIV version that cured it entirely.

Finally the [[Wright Brothers]] suffered yet another form of control reversal, one normally referred to as [[adverse yaw (see [[Aileron]]). In their pre-[[Wright Flier|Flier]] gliders they continued to encounter a problem where the glider would start to turn one direction, then suddenly reverse direction and spin into the ground. They eventually cured the problem by adding a moving rudder system, now found on all aircraft.

The root cause of the problem was dynamic. Warping the wing did what was expected in terms of lift, thereby rolling the plane, but also had an unexpectedly large effect on drag. The result was that the upward-moving wing was dragged backwards, yawing the glider. If this yaw was violent enough the additional speed on the lower wing as it was driven forward would make it generate more lift, and reverse the direction of the roll.