Flight control surfaces

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Moving the control stick to the left moves the aileron in the left wing up, that in the right wing down, making the plane lower the left wing. Pulling on the stick moves the elevators up, making the plane raise the nose. Pressing the right rudder pedal moves the rudder to the right, making the plane turn the nose to the right.
Basic aircraft control surfaces and motion. A)aileron B)control stick C)elevator D)rudder.

Aircraft flight control surfaces are

attitude
.

Development of an effective set of flight control surfaces was a critical advance in the development of aircraft. Early efforts at fixed-wing aircraft design succeeded in generating sufficient lift to get the aircraft off the ground, but once aloft, the aircraft proved uncontrollable, often with disastrous results. The development of effective flight controls is what allowed stable flight.

This article describes the control surfaces used on a fixed-wing aircraft of conventional design. Other fixed-wing aircraft configurations may use different control surfaces but the basic principles remain. The controls (stick and rudder) for rotary wing aircraft (helicopter or autogyro) accomplish the same motions about the three axes of rotation, but manipulate the rotating flight controls (main rotor disk and tail rotor disk) in a completely different manner.

Flight control surfaces are operated by aircraft flight control systems.

Considered as a generalized fluid control surface, rudders, in particular, are shared between aircraft and watercraft.

Development

The

first patented some four decades earlier in the United Kingdom
. Hinged control surfaces have the advantage of not causing stresses that are a problem of wing warping and are easier to build into structures.

Axes of motion

Main article: Aircraft principal axes
"pitch" is a nose-up/nose-down rotation, "roll" is a rotation lifting one wing and lowering the other, "yaw" rotation moves the nose in a left/right direction
Rotation around the three axes
Mnemonics to remember angle names

An aircraft is free to rotate around three axes that are perpendicular to each other and intersect at its

center of gravity
(CG). To control position and direction a pilot must be able to control rotation about each of them.

Transverse axis

The transverse axis, also known as lateral axis,[3] passes through an aircraft from wingtip to wingtip. Rotation about this axis is called pitch. Pitch changes the vertical direction that the aircraft's nose is pointing. The elevators are the primary control surfaces for pitch.

Longitudinal axis

The longitudinal axis passes through the aircraft from nose to tail. Rotation about this axis is called roll.

ailerons are the primary control of bank. The rudder
also has a secondary effect on bank.

Vertical axis

The vertical axis passes through an aircraft from top to bottom. Rotation about this axis is called yaw.[3] Yaw changes the direction the aircraft's nose is pointing, left or right. The primary control of yaw is with the rudder. Ailerons also have a secondary effect on yaw.

It is important to note that these axes move with the aircraft, and change relative to the earth as the aircraft moves. For example, for an aircraft whose left wing is pointing straight down, its "vertical" axis is parallel with the ground, while its "transverse" axis is perpendicular to the ground.

Main control surfaces

The main control surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft are attached to the airframe on hinges or tracks so they may move and thus deflect the air stream passing over them. This redirection of the air stream generates an unbalanced force to rotate the plane about the associated axis.

Flight control surfaces of Boeing 727

Ailerons

Main article: Aileron
Aileron surface

Ailerons are mounted on the trailing edge of each wing near the wingtips and move in opposite directions. When the pilot moves the stick left, or turns the wheel counter-clockwise, the left aileron goes up and the right aileron goes down. A raised aileron reduces lift on that wing and a lowered one increases lift, so moving the stick left causes the left wing to drop and the right wing to rise. This causes the aircraft to roll to the left and begin to turn to the left. Centering the stick returns the ailerons to neutral maintaining the bank angle
. The aircraft will continue to turn until opposite aileron motion returns the bank angle to zero to fly straight.

Elevator

Main article:
Elevator (aircraft)

The

MD-80
tail looks like it has a 'split' elevator system.

In the canard arrangement, the elevators are hinged to the rear of a foreplane and move in the opposite sense, for example when the pilot pulls the stick back the elevators go down to increase the lift at the front and lift the nose up.

Rudder

Main article: Rudder § Aircraft rudders

The rudder is typically mounted on the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer, part of the empennage. When the pilot pushes the left pedal, the rudder deflects left. Pushing the right pedal causes the rudder to deflect right. Deflecting the rudder right pushes the tail left and causes the nose to yaw to the right. Centering the rudder pedals returns the rudder to neutral and stops the yaw.

Secondary effects of controls

Ailerons

Main article: Adverse yaw

The ailerons primarily control roll. Whenever lift is increased,

Differential ailerons
are ailerons which have been rigged such that the downgoing aileron deflects less than the upward-moving one, reducing adverse yaw.

Rudder

The rudder is a fundamental control surface which is typically controlled by pedals rather than at the stick. It is the primary means of controlling yaw—the rotation of an airplane about its vertical axis. The rudder may also be called upon to counter-act the adverse yaw produced by the roll-control surfaces.

If rudder is continuously applied in level flight the aircraft will yaw initially in the direction of the applied rudder – the primary effect of rudder. After a few seconds the aircraft will tend to bank in the direction of yaw. This arises initially from the increased speed of the wing opposite to the direction of yaw and the reduced speed of the other wing. The faster wing generates more lift and so rises, while the other wing tends to go down because of generating less lift. Continued application of rudder sustains rolling tendency because the aircraft flying at an angle to the airflow - skidding towards the forward wing. When applying right rudder in an aircraft with

anhedral
will show the opposite effect. This effect of the rudder is commonly used in model aircraft where if sufficient dihedral or polyhedral is included in the wing design, primary roll control such as ailerons may be omitted altogether.

Turning the aircraft

Main article: Banked turn § Banked turn in aeronautics

Unlike turning a boat, changing the direction of an aircraft normally must be done with the ailerons rather than the rudder. The rudder turns (yaws) the aircraft but has little effect on its direction of travel. With aircraft, the change in direction is caused by the horizontal component of lift, acting on the wings. The pilot tilts the lift force, which is perpendicular to the wings, in the direction of the intended turn by rolling the aircraft into the turn. As the bank angle is increased, the lifting force can be split into two components: one acting vertically and one acting horizontally.

If the total lift is kept constant, the vertical component of lift will decrease. As the weight of the aircraft is unchanged, this would result in the aircraft descending if not countered. To maintain level flight requires increased positive (up) elevator to increase the angle of attack, increase the total lift generated and keep the vertical component of lift equal with the weight of the aircraft. This cannot continue indefinitely. The total

stall
if the pilot attempts to generate enough lift to maintain level flight.

Alternate main control surfaces

Some aircraft configurations have non-standard primary controls. For example, instead of elevators at the back of the stabilizers, the entire tailplane may change angle. Some aircraft have a tail in the shape of a V, and the moving parts at the back of those combine the functions of elevators and rudder. Delta wing aircraft may have "elevons" at the back of the wing, which combine the functions of elevators and ailerons.

Secondary control surfaces

KLM Fokker 70, showing position of flap and liftdumper flight controls. The liftdumpers are the lifted cream-coloured panels on the wing upper surface (in this picture there are five on the right wing). The flaps are the large drooped surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing.

Spoilers

Main articles: Spoiler (aeronautics) and Spoileron
Boeing 747-8. Top left: All surfaces at neutral position; Top middle: Right aileron is lowered; Top right: spoilers
raised during flight; Middle row: Fowler flaps extended (left), extended more (middle), hinged with inboard slotted part hinged even more (right); Bottom row: spoilers raised during landing

On low drag aircraft such as

sailplanes, spoilers are used to disrupt airflow over the wing and greatly reduce lift. This allows a glider pilot to lose altitude without gaining excessive airspeed. Spoilers are sometimes called "lift dumpers". Spoilers that can be used asymmetrically are called spoilerons
and can affect an aircraft's roll.

Flaps

Main article:
Flap (aircraft)

Flaps are mounted on the trailing edge on the inboard section of each wing (near the wing roots). They are deflected down to increase the effective curvature of the wing. Flaps raise the maximum lift coefficient of the aircraft and therefore reduce its stalling speed.[5] They are used during low speed, high angle of attack flight including take-off and descent for landing. Some aircraft are equipped with "flaperons", which are more commonly called "inboard ailerons"[citation needed
]. These devices function primarily as ailerons, but on some aircraft, will "droop" when the flaps are deployed, thus acting as both a flap and a roll-control inboard aileron.

Slats

Main article:
Leading edge slats

Fieseler Fi 156 Storch) give excellent slow speed and STOL
capabilities, but compromise higher speed performance. Retractable slats, as seen on most airliners, provide reduced stalling speed for take-off and landing, but are retracted for cruising.

Air brakes

Air brakes on the rear fuselage of a Eurowings BAe 146-300
Main article: Air brake (aeronautics)

Air brakes are used to increase drag. Spoilers might act as air brakes, but are not pure air brakes as they also function as lift-dumpers or in some cases as roll control surfaces. Air brakes are usually surfaces that deflect outwards from the fuselage (in most cases symmetrically on opposing sides) into the airstream in order to increase form-drag. As they are in most cases located elsewhere on the aircraft, they do not directly affect the lift generated by the wing. Their purpose is to slow down the aircraft. They are particularly useful when a high rate of descent is required. They are common on high performance military aircraft as well as civilian aircraft, especially those lacking reverse thrust capability.

Control trimming surfaces

Main article: Trim tab

Trimming controls allow a pilot to balance the lift and drag being produced by the wings and control surfaces over a wide range of load and airspeed. This reduces the effort required to adjust or maintain a desired flight

attitude
.

Elevator trim

Elevator trim balances the control force necessary to maintain the correct aerodynamic force on the tail to balance the aircraft. Whilst carrying out certain flight exercises, a lot of trim could be required to maintain the desired angle of attack. This mainly applies to slow flight, where a nose-up attitude is required, in turn requiring a lot of trim causing the tailplane to exert a strong downforce. Elevator trim is correlated with the speed of the airflow over the tail, thus airspeed changes to the aircraft require re-trimming. An important design parameter for aircraft is the stability of the aircraft when trimmed for level flight. Any disturbances such as gusts or turbulence will be damped over a short period of time and the aircraft will return to its level flight trimmed airspeed.

Trimming tail plane

Except for very light aircraft, trim tabs on the elevators are unable to provide the force and range of motion desired. To provide the appropriate trim force the entire horizontal tail plane is made adjustable in pitch. This allows the pilot to select exactly the right amount of positive or negative lift from the tail plane while reducing drag from the elevators.

Control horn

Mass balance protruding from an aileron used to suppress flutter

A control horn is a section of control surface which projects ahead of the pivot point. It generates a force which tends to increase the surface's deflection thus reducing the control pressure experienced by the pilot. Control horns may also incorporate a counterweight which helps to balance the control and prevent it from fluttering in the airstream. Some designs feature separate anti-flutter weights.

(In radio controlled model aircraft, the term "control horn" has a different meaning)[6][7]

Spring trim

In the simplest arrangement, trimming is done by a mechanical spring (or bungee) which adds appropriate force to augment the pilot's control input. The spring is usually connected to an elevator trim lever to allow the pilot to set the spring force applied.

Rudder and aileron trim

Most fixed-wing aircraft have a trimming control surface on the

centre of gravity
being displaced from the aircraft centerline. This can be caused by fuel or an item of payload being loaded more on one side of the aircraft compared to the other, such as when one fuel tank has more fuel than the other.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Patents
  2. ^ *Centennial of flight Archived 2008-05-05 at the Wayback Machine - illustration of Wilbur Wright invention of wing warping using a cardboard box
  3. ^ a b c "MISB Standard 0601" (PDF). Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2015. Also at File:MISB Standard 0601.pdf.
  4. ^ Clancy, L.J. Aerodynamics, Section 16.6
  5. ^ Clancy, L.J. Aerodynamics Chapter 6
  6. ^ ""Servo Control"". Archived from the original on 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
  7. ^ Model Aircraft: control horn FAQ Archived 2013-05-13 at the Wayback Machine

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flight control surfaces.
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