Unusual Aerodynamic Arrangements

Unusual aerodynamic arrangements, such as canards, floating main wings (Regis, 1995), fore and aft horizontal tails, tailless configurations, and vee-tails represent particular hazards in the designs of personal airplanes because of the limited opportunity for thorough aerodynamic testing. Designers expect to work out stability and control problems in pro­totype flight testing, but flight testing can leave many areas unexplored, as compared with systematic wind-tunnel testing.

Possible tail stalling on the vee-tailed Beech Model 35 in sideslips at forward center of gravity positions, flaps down, leading to abrupt noseovers is mentioned in Chapter 14. The special stability and control problems of canard airplanes are mentioned in Chapter 17. Canard applications to military airplanes have a better chance of success than those for personal airplanes. Military canard applications take place under the protection of large wind-tunnel test programs and electronic stability augmentation, protections not available to designers of personal airplanes.