Andy Ross writes: > * For safety. The A-4 had automatic slats that were retracted by > aerodynamic force -- they dropped automatically at low airspeeds and > high AoA's. On the ground, they just hung open. This was a great > idea for maintenance purposes, but left open the possibility that > they might get stuck and deploy asymmetrically. That's a > recoverable situation normally, but not when there's another plane a > few feet under or above your wing tip. :)
The helio courier also has this feature. The leading edge slats are split so you have two per wing ... four total acting independently of each other. Depending on a variety of factors, each of the four could deploy/retract at a different time. They made a bit of a bang coming down so if you weren't expecting them, an unwary passenger might be a little surprised and wonder what just fell off. :-) It's a neat idea that is simple and effective. I've always thought it would be kind of fun to impliment something like this on an R/C model, not that the typical R/C model would need them ... Curt. -- Curtis Olson IVLab / HumanFIRST Program FlightGear Project Twin Cities [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
