Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[Crumpp]

If you have never flown a slat equipped aircraft, it is a different experience despite the slats being totally unnoticeable for the vast majority of their operation.

Once you have, the idiosyncrasies of the slats becomes part of the airplane and the tactile clues are comforting acknowledgements that everything is working as it should.

Once you explore the low speed performance of a slat equipped aircraft you will miss them on airplanes that lack such a device.

[Crumpp]

RAE evaluation that the aircraft was 'too stable'

It is a fact the RAE pilot felt that way. It is also a fact the RAE had no defined stability and control standards outside of pilot opinion. They did not have the measurements and definitions of the NACA or the RLM.

It is also a fact if you apply those definitions and standards, the Bf-109 was designed to be thrown around the sky at maximum performance the physics and physiological limits of the real world allowed.

Gust factor is a very real limit to airplanes. Flying around the other day, I had to stay below Vno just cruising because the sky was so bumpy.

If you pull a 6G maneuver and hit a gust acceleration, you have damaged the airplane. Not only that, 6G's sucks!! It is very uncomfortable and exhausting! IIRC, the USAF did a study and a fighter pilots ability to accurately track a target for a gun solution is degraded ~85% of normal after a few seconds exposure to just 4.5G's.

What Mtt did was apply a stability and control standard to ensure the pilot could quickly and precisely maneuver the guns onto target in order to make the most accurate shot possible. They tried to ensure the airplane achieved maximum performance to get where it needed to be in a condition to destroy other airplanes.

The designed a stable shooting platform and built an airplane around it.

[Crumpp]

Crumpp to cut-n-paste quotes from a website with the title 109 myths as PROOF that uneven slat activation could NOT cause spins..

Why don't you get some experience in an automatic slat equipped aircraft and come back to tell us how it works.

You don't seem to count my experience so share yours!!

[Crumpp]

Bf 109 into a stall and spin when the slats deployed on one wing and not the other

Airframes break apart in flight, Flaps break, engines breakdown, spark plugs foul, fabric balloons, and slats malfunction...




All things mechanical can fail especially if not properly maintained or abused.

What does that have to do with me or the physics of how slats operate?

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

Flaps break, engines breakdown, spark plugs foul, fabric balloons, and slats malfunction...

All things mechanical can fail especially if not properly maintained or abused.

What does that have to do with me or the physics of how slats operate?

Not sure Crumpp..

But it sounds like your saying you know better than Oberleutnant Erwin Leykauf wrt how slats worked on a Bf109 in flight..

If so,

well..

I guess you can 'feel' that way..

Just know that I an others are probally going to stick with Oberleutnant Erwin Leykauf experance on this mater over yours

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

Why don't you get some experience in an automatic slat equipped aircraft and come back to tell us how it works.

Why? When I have something better, as in an actual WWII Bf109 quote, i.e.

Originally Posted by Oberleutnant Erwin Leykauf

Less experienced pilots could put a Bf 109 into a stall and spin when the slats deployed on one wing and not the other in a tight turn. When slats deployed unevenly in tight turns, they would disrupt the airflow, causing the ailerons to ‘snatch’ enough to shake a Bf 109, spoiling the pilot’s aim

Originally Posted by Crumpp

You don't seem to count my experience so share yours!!

Don't take it personally!

I just think the experience of an actual WWII Bf109 pilot trumps Crumpp's modern civilian aircraft pilot experience when talking about how a Bf109 acts..

Guess I am just silly like that!

[taildraggernut]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

It is a fact the RAE pilot felt that way. It is also a fact the RAE had no defined stability and control standards outside of pilot opinion. They did not have the measurements and definitions of the NACA or the RLM.

It is also a fact if you apply those definitions and standards, the Bf-109 was designed to be thrown around the sky at maximum performance the physics and physiological limits of the real world allowed.

Gust factor is a very real limit to airplanes. Flying around the other day, I had to stay below Vno just cruising because the sky was so bumpy.

If you pull a 6G maneuver and hit a gust acceleration, you have damaged the airplane. Not only that, 6G's sucks!! It is very uncomfortable and exhausting! IIRC, the USAF did a study and a fighter pilots ability to accurately track a target for a gun solution is degraded ~85% of normal after a few seconds exposure to just 4.5G's.

What Mtt did was apply a stability and control standard to ensure the pilot could quickly and precisely maneuver the guns onto target in order to make the most accurate shot possible. They tried to ensure the airplane achieved maximum performance to get where it needed to be in a condition to destroy other airplanes.

The designed a stable shooting platform and built an airplane around it.

Actually I remember a thread that proved your theories the RAE had no established stability and control standards completely false.

The 109 was designed to be flown at high speed towards a target to throw bullets at it and then GTFO in a hurry too, a small wing with such a high loading was not designed to be thrown around and that is why they put slats on them, to improve it's low speed handling.

why does 6g suck? I personally like aerobatics and have been to 7g, of course you tend to avoid manouvering in conditions you 'know' likely to be gusty.

[taildraggernut]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

If you have never flown a slat equipped aircraft, it is a different experience despite the slats being totally unnoticeable for the vast majority of their operation.

Once you have, the idiosyncrasies of the slats becomes part of the airplane and the tactile clues are comforting acknowledgements that everything is working as it should.

Once you explore the low speed performance of a slat equipped aircraft you will miss them on airplanes that lack such a device.

I don't miss aircraft with slats at all, I am quite capable of handling aircraft without them, of course if you feel your own competence is questionable then there is nothing wrong with 'training wheels'