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Aircraft Carrier Study

32.3k CRJ900Pilot  4.0 years ago

By "study" I mean a hypothesis and a 2 minute test lol.


Anyway, what I found is that aircraft handle much better on the deck if there is a mechanism that folds the vertical stabilizer 90º to one side. This could be;
A. Atheistic, as the whole tail folds,
or
B. Hidden, where just the internal wing is folded and the appearance of the tail does not change.


Reason:
The carrier is moving forward at 18 mph. This essentially means there is 18 mph of "wind" flowing over the whole plane, more specifically the tail section. As this "wind" flows over the horizontal stabilizer, the plane naturally wants to point into the wind. While great for takeoff, this makes taxing and using elevators difficult use. By rotating the horizontal stabilizer, you get rid of that force, and thus the plane will stay pointed in the same heading. In short, you're taking the horizontal stabilizer out of the airstream.


Conclusion:
I don't know if I'm the first person to discover this idea. This idea could probably be improved upon using FunkyTrees, where it only rotates under 18mph and under 120 ft (10 ft above carrier deck more or less) but thats besides the point. The system would only add 1 part to any plane, so in my opinion it's worth it.

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    9,428 vcharng

    " you're taking the horizontal stabilizer out of the airstream."
    more specifically, you take the "stablization" effect off the yaw axis.
    IRL the stablization is neutralized by wheel grip, but we all know that SP doesn't have the best wheel grip mechanism...

    Pinned 4.0 years ago
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    32.3k CRJ900Pilot

    Exactly, couldn’t have said it better myself @vcharng

    4.0 years ago
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    32.3k CRJ900Pilot

    Thanks! @SnoWFLakE0s

    4.0 years ago
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    32.3k CRJ900Pilot

    That could be because of drag from other parts, I’m not sure though. In my case, it greatly helped for the stock P-51 @asteroidbook345

    4.0 years ago
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    66.6k SnoWFLakE0s

    @CRJ900Pilot
    .
    Simple logic & booleans. I guess something like (IAS < 18mphmetricequivalent) & (Altitude < 120ftmetricequivalent)

    4.0 years ago
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    32.3k CRJ900Pilot

    @SnoWFLakE0s
    I'm horrible at Funky Trees, so for laughs and giggles, what would the formula be for such a setup?

    4.0 years ago