This is an interesting thread but it's hurting my ity bity brain. An intersting story involves the development of the P-38 Lightning. The prototype had a nasty tendency to develop flutter in the tail booms in a dive (among other probems). It was making Kelly Johnson and his crew at Lockheed nuts. The solution was faily simple. They wound up modifying the wing fillets where the main wing joined the cockpit pod and the tail flutter disappeared. You'll note the little teardrop shaped counter weights attached to the elevator of every P-38. That was the result of one failed attempt to resolve the tail flutter issue. It did nothing. The counter weights were to be eliminated on production aircraft. However, a U.S. Army Aircorps General felt they were absolutely essential so Kelly just shrugged and she went into production with the counter balance weights. They do kinda look cool.

Bill