Stability and Control characteristics of the Early Mark Spitfires

[Crumpp]

So, what they are saying again is that there are large reactions to small stick travel. Not that the plane was unstable.

Yes, they definately say there are large aceleration changes for a small amount of elevator travel.

The other part is that they do say the airplane is unstable. Neutral or unstable......

At a neutral or unstable condition, the Spitfire is not able to hold a constant aceleration in a turn.

One can run the math on Cm and see that too.

flight records from other airplanes show that a turn may be entered rapidly and the desired normal acceleration may be held constant by a single rearward motion of the stick provided the static stability of an airplane is sufficiently large.

At forward CG, the static stability is sufficiently large. At normal and aft CG the static margin is neutral or unstable.