Easy Craig, if you reduce lift at the outboard section of the wing, (which is what I guess happens if you split the ailerons) you reduce roll damping and therefore you get an INCREASE in roll rate !

But may I ask with all the A10s in the USAF didn't any pilots, particularly instructors and standards pilots on the type , find out from Fairchild EXACTLY why this happened, so as to give squadron pilots a fuller understanding of how the aeroplane worked ? Just curious !

.........and Don, does a split flap REALLY create more lift than a plain flap, thought it was to create a drag as well as lift increase, it was on the Canberra, which didn't use flaps for T/O.

and Pat, are you sure that many aircraft approach on the 'wrong side " of the drag curve, (the slower you go the slower you go !) none of the types I have flown do that. Concorde was on the " wrong" side of the drag curve on approach BUT used auto throttles even with hand flown approaches to cope with the speed instability.

Some types, Vulcan, Victor , Lightning, approached with the airbrakes out to get them on the "right" side of the drag curve and create speed stability and the B47 even streamed a chute, in flight, to get it on the "right" side of the curve. As a cadet in the RAF I used to watch them, with fascination, landing at Fairford, makes me really old !

Good debate tho !

David