High wings

Mounting the wings well above the centre of gravity aids roll stability, but not for the reasons often assumed. Figure 11.16(a) shows a high-winged air­craft which is rolling, but has not yet developed a sideslip. It will be seen that both the lift and weight forces pass through the centre of gravity, so there is no restoring moment. The fuselage does not swing like a pendulum under the wing, as is often incorrectly believed. Once the sideslip commences as in Fig. 11.6(b) the wing becomes yawed to the resultant flow direction and the lower wing tends to generate increased lift due to the onset of vortical lift at the

tip. Also, the cross flow on the fuselage, due to sideslip, produces an upwash on the lower wing and a downwash on the upper wing. There may also be a slight sideways drag component. As illustrated, the resulting force no longer passes through the centre of gravity, and a restoring moment is produced. The lower the centre of gravity is, the greater will be the moment arm. Thus, high­winged aircraft do not need so much dihedral as low-wing types, and may even need none at all.

The use of wing sweep also enhances roll stability, as may be seen from Fig. 11.17. When a sideslip occurs, the lower wing presents a larger span as seen from the direction of the approaching air, and as with dihedral, the effect is to roll the aircraft back towards the horizontal.

Excessive rolling stability can produce undesirable dynamic instabilities due to cross-coupling between roll and yaw modes, such as in the Dutch roll described in Chapter 12. Swept-wing aircraft, therefore, often have negative dihedral, which is known as anhedral. Anhedral is often found on swept-winged aircraft that are also high-winged, as on the Antonov shown in Fig. 12.13.