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Old 07-19-2012, 05:57 PM
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CaptainDoggles CaptainDoggles is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by winny View Post
I have another question, the RAE refer to the bf-109 as being " too stable for a fighter".

So is instability a good or bad thing?
I've read that quote, but Mike Williams seems to have sort of picked it out without including a lot of context from the original source, so it's hard to know exactly what they were referring to.

Here's the quote for people unfamiliar:
Quote:
Longitudinally the aeroplane is too stable for a fighter. There is a large change of directional trim with speed. No rudder trimmer is fitted; lack of this is severely felt at high speeds, and limits a pilot's ability to turn left when diving.
Now, the way I interpret it is that they're referring to the trim problem. I could be wrong. There could be a truncated sentence or two preceding the quote that makes it more clear, but that's how I interpret it.

Edit: I think in this case that they're correct. You don't want the pilot's attention on trimming the aircraft every five seconds; you want the pilot's attention devoted to situational awareness.

Last edited by CaptainDoggles; 07-19-2012 at 06:00 PM.