fw 190a5 flight model

[JtD]

Originally Posted by Glider

Its something that is probably easier to say than do. The Size of the control surfaces clearly has a bearing on this. However, make them smaller and the plane loses some of its agility. Change the config and you have to change the wing design with obvious complexities. Change the gearing and the aircraft will handle differently in particular the secondary control effects.

This was actually done with the ailerons when the P-36 was upgraded to the Allison engined P-40. The leverage was increased, which meant less maximum aileron deflection at low speed (stick travel limit), but more aileron deflection at higher speeds (force limit). The P-40 had a lower roll rate at low speed than the P-36, but a considerably higher maximum roll rate and a much higher roll rate at high speed.