The Aeroplane Speaks

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Excerpt: ...transverse to the direction of motion, and about which all the air forces may be said to balance, or through which they may be said to act. Imagine A to be a flat surface, attitude vertical, travelling through the air in the direction of motion M. Its C.P. is then obviously along the exact centre line of the surface as illustrated. In B, C, and D the surfaces are shown with angles of incidence decreasing to nothing, and you will note that the C.P. moves forward with the decreasing angle. Now, should some gust or eddy tend to make the surface decrease the angle, i.e., dive, then the C.P. moves forward and pushes the front of the surface up. Should the surface tend to assume too large an angle, then the reverse happens-the C.P. moves back and pushes the rear of the surface up. Flat surfaces are, then, theoretically stable longitudinally. They are not, however, used, on account of their poor lift-drift ratio. As already explained, cambered surfaces are used, and these are longitudinally unstable at those angles of incidence producing a reasonable lift-drift ratio, i.e., at angles below: about 12 degrees. A is a cambered surface, attitude approximately vertical, moving through the air in the direction M. Obviously the C. P. coincides with the transverse centre line of the surface. With decreasing angles, down to angles of about 30 degrees, the C.P. moves forward as in the case of flat surfaces (see B), but angles above 30 degrees do not interest us, since they produce a very low ratio of lift to drift. Below angles of about 30 degrees (see C) the dipping front part of the surface assumes a negative angle of incidence resulting in the DOWNWARD air pressure D, and the more the angle of incidence is decreased, the greater such negative angle and its resultant pressure D. Since the C.P. is the resultant of all the air forces, its position is naturally affected by D, which causes it to move backwards. Now, should some gust or eddy tend to make the...