Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt255
I also don't see what the 109 slats have to do with rolling or why the plane would be more stable because of them.
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Because leading edge slats were fitted for exactly to this reason. Its no coincidence that slats cover the wing area ahead of ailerons, and maintain steady airflow without stalling at that part of the wing. Slats allow for higher Angle of attack without stalling - meaning the airplane is still controllable is rolling plane. The brief aileron snatching noted on the 109E while the slats deployed, until fully open is also due to this reason. It was fixed on later models of the 109 though, either through the redesign of the wing or through the redesign of the slat actuating mechanism.
Designers always aimed to maintain aileron control near the stall, ie. that the wing root would stall sooner than the part before the ailerons, so that ailerons remain effective. Slatless airplanes typically aimed for this by using washout, a sort of twist in the wing that gave the outer wing less AoA in any flight condition, and a result delayed the stalling point and made the ailerons effective longer. This of course decreased the lift generated by the wing in all conditions, since lift is more or less equal to wing area x AoA. Though slats do the same, their plus side is that they only deploy when needed, and otherwise the aircrafts wings develop their full lift potential. Therefore, they combine the best features for high speed flight, TO/Landing and turn fight.
09-06-2012, 09:30 PM
Hybrid Mode
