Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[bongodriver]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

Care to expand on that?

Not really, it's pretty self explanatory.

[Crumpp]

Even in a very tight turn the stall was quite gentle, with no tendency for the aircraft to suddenly flick over on to its back and spin.

Right.

Obviously folks do not understand how the LE devices work. Many people would benefit from reading chapter 19 of a book called "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewiesche.

It would eliminate all the stupid arguments on these boards.

http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Rudder-E.../dp/0070362408

Handley Page automatic slats equipped aircraft have unique and non-traditional stall characteristics as a result.

The stall was quite gentle because of the LE Slats. The effect of the slats is to increase the angle of attack the stall occurs at by energizing the boundary layer behind the slat.

The slats on the outboard and the inboard wing is not slotted. This means the inboard portion will ALWAYS stall at a lower Angle of Attack. With the inboard wing stalled, it no longer produces the lift required to raise the nose and increase the outboard portion of the wing that is slotted to the stall Angle of Attack.

It acts like training wheels, automatically countering an asymmetrical stall so that depending on the CG location, no amount of rudder input at the stall point will cause a spin.

Today, slats for spin proofing have fallen out of favor and given way to cuffed wing designs. The aerodynamic effect is the same but the cuffs offer the advantage of a constant drag picture without the complexity of the automatic slat. Drag forces increase with the slat deployment as lift and drag are connected linked by a fixed relationship.

[bongodriver]

Even in a very tight turn the stall was quite gentle, with no tendency for the aircraft to suddenly flick over on to its back and spin

Right.....nothing remarkeable

The Spitfires and Hurricanes could follow the Me.109 round during the stalled turns without themselves showing any signs of stalling

What?!!!! but these aircraft don't have magic slats

Anyway what some people don't appear to grasp is the fact that the effect slats have is not 'infinite', they can only give a fixed amount of increased alpha before stall and what do you think happens after that?
if your elevators remain effective then you have the ability to go beyond maximum AoA and stall.......and dare I say it spin too, after all if one magic slated wing exceeds max AoA before the other then it will flip.

let's not forget the reason the 109 got slats was to improve it's 'low speed' handling......much like any other aircraft with slats (no coincidence slats feature heavily on STOL aircraft) and was nothing to do with making it better at turning, simply it was to prevent that very skittish high-speed, high-loading wing from killing pilots at approach speeds.

[KG26_Alpha]

Leave the personal attacks out of this thread please.

OK

Seems neither of them take heed of what's been asked of them

Posts removed and both of them on a short holiday together.

[NZtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Crumpp

Right.

Obviously folks do not understand how the LE devices work. Many people would benefit from reading chapter 19 of a book called "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewiesche.

It would eliminate all the stupid arguments on these boards.

Obviously slats are merely another aerodynamic device which help improve flight characteristics, as are fixed slots, saw-tooths, flap blowing etc etc - nothing magic, nothing worth making a song and dance routine over. One wonders what the 109 would have been like to fly without the slats.