Ken,

I agree with what you say. One of the OP's questions was what spoilerons are. The only answer he got was ailerons that can both be raised at the same time, to reduce lift. I've always thought they are something else: "spoilers that can be used asymmetrically to achieve the effect of ailerons" (that's Wikipedia's definition), so I asked if there's a different name for ailerons that can both be raised at once. This is a question about the names of airplane parts, not aerodynamics, and it seems to me to be quite appropriate for a beginner's forum. Indeed, it's the same question the OP asked: "What are spoilerons?" I'm not trying to get into an argument with anyone; just looking for information.

I do not uses spoilerons so will not comment .... however in the interest of terms..... "Spoilers" are used predominantly on sailplanes to reduce lift. In the model world....Instead of say 30 or 40 or 50 to 1 glide ratio, when deployed you now have 10 or 15 to 1 or less... and this is the important part... with little if any increase in speed. they can be flaps that raise "up" at the wings highpoint.. or a "fence" that rises up veritcial from within the wing, etc. The nose does not drop but rather the plane descends parallel to the ground but say at a 60 degree slope. They work differently on different models. Spoilers are very handy for small fields surrounded by high trees for example. Deploy once you clear the trees.. lose altitude quickly, retract back into the wing to allow normal flow (with a bit of recover time which needs to be experimented with) and resume normal glide path to setup for landing. it doesn't take much spoiler area to disrupt the air flow over the wing. This is how I used them anyways on everything from the Pierce Paragon to a gentle lady back in the day.

Today spoilers are generally no longer used except on simple Rudder, Elevator setups.. Crow, or the raising of ailerons and lowering of flaps is used now and this makes tremendous speed brakes.

Yes. But on some planes, one spoiler can be raised while the other isn't, to induce roll. In full-scale aviation, that's called a "spoileron." In RC, people seem to use the term"spoileron" to refer to ailerons that can both be raised at the same time, to reduce lift. So the question is, are we using the same term - "spoileron" - to refer to two very different things, or is there another term for ailerons that can both be raised at once? It's not unheard of to use one term to refer to different things, and since nobody has offered anything different, maybe that's what's going on here.

I think you made that distinction clear earlier in the thread.

I think the real source of the ambiguity stems from whether the primary purpose of the "spoileron" is generating symmetrical lift, or asymmetrical lift. In the case of full scale aviation, spoilerons seem to be spoilers which only extend above the top of the wing. In RC, typically they refer to ailerons with a flap>mix program which can obviously deflect below or above (in the case of inverted flight) the wing. Maybe RC-specific spoilerons ought to be referred to as a negative flap mix, or reversed flap mix?

Respectfully,
Andy

Well, I tried to make it clear but kept getting responses that just told me what spoilers are.[]

I'm coming around to what I read you as suggesting: the RC terminology is to use "spoileron" for ailerons that can both be raised while the full-scale terminology is different. I don't know of any full-scale plane that uses the kind of spoileron that the RC people seem to be referring to (though there probably are some somewhere) so maybe using the same term for two different things won't cause undue confusion.

Tha Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar (what the Japanese Army Air Force flew in China - not the Mitsubishi Zero) had two buttons on the control stick and the ability to engage one flap in a sharp turn.  That's why the A.V.G. P-40s - the Flying Tigers - and later all Allied fighters could not stick around and dogfight them.

Agree.. I see this when I fly on the commercial airlines however they are also in the back past the high point of the wing.... so not a true "spoiler"...
I offered my longwinded explanation because of this statement:
> spoilers that can be used asymmetrically to achieve the effect of ailerons"
Being used asymetrically takes them out of the realm of "spoiler"