Thread: Spit IIa
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Old 10-19-2011, 02:45 AM
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Crumpp Crumpp is offline
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Quote:
spitfires 'Dangerous Instability' are verging on laughable.


Pilots died from it....



Quote:
A pitch unstable aircraft is not pleasent to fly; it tightens in turns and does not settle automatically from a disturbed path.
Like this??

From the Spitfire Mk II Pilot Operating Notes:



The same warning is in the Spitfire Mk I which contains even more details.

If you want I will scan the pages from my college text from my stability and control classes. They deal a lot with the Spitfire and the DC-3 as both are famous icons that lack the most basic of stability, longitudinal. Unfortunately, Stability and Control engineering was new science at the time and nobody collected data on just how many accidents could have been prevented had these airplanes had acceptable longitudinal stability.

There is no agenda or bias, bud. You can learn something or not.

Notice, this is not MY opinion.....









Here is part of that text book. Read the last myth on a stable aircraft being less maneuverable than an unstable one.

http://books.google.com/books?id=D-c...0myths&f=false

Last edited by Crumpp; 10-19-2011 at 02:59 AM. Reason: Added the reference to John C Gibbs paper on S/C myths
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