Re: Misconceptions: Physics of Flight

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, brian whatcott wrote:

> At 09:36 8/14/99 -0400, John Denker wrote:
>
> > >    But people conceive that the low trailing edge lifted the
> > > wing - wrongly. The low wing [*trailing edge*] dropped and slowed
> > > the Flyer as it turned towards it.
>
> > The Wrights discovered that they needed to deflect the rudder
> > to overcome this adverse yaw, to keep the airplane pointing
> > the same way it is going.
>
>  As I say, this misunderstanding is very widely held.


I finally discovered my own misconception when I ran up against the fact
that some small planes cannot adjust their airlerons differentially at
all.  Then how can they ever change heading?  Instead they have "spoilers"
on each wing which, when erected, reduce the lifting force on that wing
and tilt the entire craft just as you say.


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