Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by *Buzzsaw*

And, in accelerated power on stalls under G, the 109 could drop a wing, just like any other aircraft. The chances of this was less, but the slats did not exclude this possibility.

I agree, of course it should stall and yes, the stall speed was a bit higher. The slats practically do the same thing as washout would do on a slat-less aircraft, making the outer wing section stall later (at higher AoA) than the inner wing, thus maintaining aileron control longer.

The problem is how how this stall happens - from everything what I have read I'd expect the 109 to be pushed fairly far in a turn (partly because of the slats, party because of the elevator's characteristics), the ailerons would snatch a bit when the slats are opening (at least on the 109E), and when it would stall, gently start to sink, none of the violent flick overs, flat spins and other rubbish we have the sim.

"When doing tight turns with the Me.109 leading at speeds between 90 m.p.h. and 220 m.p.h. the Spitfires and Hurricanes had little difficult in keeping on the tail of the Me. 109. During these turns the amount of normal g recorded on the Me. 109 was between 2½ and 4 g.[b] The aircraft stalled if the turn was tightened to give more than 4 g at speeds below about 200 m.p.h. The slots opened at about ½ g before the stall, and whilst opening caused the ailerons to snatch ; this upset the pilot's sighting immediately and caused him to lose ground. When the slots were fully open the aircraft could be turned quite steadily until very near the stall. If the stick was then pulled back a little more the aircraft suddenly shuddered, and either tended to come out of the turn or dropped its wing further, oscillating meanwhile in pitch and roll and rapidly losing height ; the aircraft immediately unstalled if the stick was eased forward. Even in a very tight turn the stall was quite gentle, with no tendency for the aircraft to suddenly flick over on to its back and spin. The Spitfires and Hurricanes could follow the Me.109 round during the stalled turns without themselves showing any signs of stalling."