Author: Marion O. McKinney

Publisher:

Published: 1946

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13:

Summary: The effects of negative dihedral on lateral stability and control characteristics at high lift coefficients have been determined by flight tests of a model in the Langley free-flight tunnel. The geometric dihedral angle of the model wing was varied from 0° to -20° and the vertical-tail area, from 0 to 35 percent of the wing area. The model was flown with various combinations of dihedral angle and vertical-tail area at lift coefficients of 1.0, 1.4, and 1.8. As the effective dihedral was decreased from 0° to -15°, the model became increasingly difficult to fly. With an effective dihedral of -15° the flying characteristics were considered to be dangerous because, when there was only a slight lag in the application of corrective control following a disturbance, the unstable moments resulting from spiral instability became sufficiently large to overpower the moments of the controls so that return to straight flight was impossible. Inasmuch as full-scale airplanes because of their greater size will diverge at a slower rate than free-flight models, the amount of negative effective dihedral that would constitute a dangerous condition is expected to be greater for full-scale airplanes.