Stability and Control characteristics of the Early Mark Spitfires

[taildraggernut]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

Exactly. Instability does not do anything except make the aircraft harder to control.

It is a myth that instability has positive effects on maneuverability. In fact, it narrows the maneuvering envelope because the pilot cannot precisely control the aircraft.

So if this is true why was the Spitfire 'known' for it's ease of control?

Interesting, yet when they wanted to increase the Spitfire roll rate they had to make it less laterally stable by clipping it's wings, so not such a myth about instability, seriously think about it, stability is a resistance to change, stability will never be conducive to manouverability, neutral to slight instability would be the ideal (which is approx where the Spitfire is) and high instability starts to require computers for control.