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Old 04-18-2010 | 09:04 PM
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tripower222
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Default RE: lifting tail


ORIGINAL: Bozarth

In general, tails are not there to generate lift, as the wing is. It's a stability issue - think of feathers on an arrow. Unless balanced significantly tail heavy, the tail on a telemaster is not generating lift, even with a flat bottomed airfoil. And you wouldn't want it to - It would be like sitting both kids on the same side of a teeter-totter.

Kurt
I will have to respectfully disagree. No one is saying the horizontals primary purpose is to produce lift, however I can assure you when real aircraft are built the airfoil on the stabilizer is designed to produce a certian amount of lift be it positive or negitive to react to the c<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">haracteristics</span>of the airplane (usually the main wingsdesign/airfoil). I spent many years in aviation, have a degree in avation technology and was a DC-9 instructor for a major airline for 6 yearsand have a verygood understanding of what I'm talking about.

I think maybeChuckW is right, this topic would be better suited in the aerodynamics forum.