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Old 01-23-2019 | 02:03 PM
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Originally Posted by TampaRC
What type of aircraft require down thrust and or right thrust ? I am working on a low wing p-51 and am wonder if offsets are needed.
There is no specific "type" that requires thrust angles to the engine. It's a combination of things including but not limited to wing, horizontal and vertical stab incidences. Speed envelope and wing loading. Engine torque and any number of other things. Even the airfoil of the wing can play into it. The full size Piper Cherokee has some noticeable down and right thrust to it. Some planes will offset the vert stab a few degrees which can be seen when looking down the center line.

I know the full size P-51 has some down thrust to it but not much. I don't believe it has any right thrust though. Some of the models I've seen of this plane have the down and some don't. Again, it's all in the rest of the stuff I mentioned.

If building a kit, I'll trust that the designer has built in any engine thrust he may want. If scratch building I tend to zero everything unless the plans say otherwise. If after flying it I feel a need to add engine thrust, I'll user washers behind the engine mount to "adjust" it. But for me, learning the different flying characteristics of each plane is part of the fun. If every plane flew and landed the same, I would soon get bored with the hobby.