Rigging styles

Hey all,

I read somewhere (possibly two different sources), and please correct me if I'm wrong, that Albert Ball, and Will Barker prefered a tail heavy aircraft. Did any other pilots do the same? Was this only applied to scout machines or was it universal? And what, if any, benfits, other than personal preference, are there to this configuration, considering it actually existed?

thanks in advance,
jbs

IBS: My understanding is that an aircraft is balanced around its center of gravity, in such a fashion that if hands were taken off the stick in the center or neutral position the plane would remain in conrtrol, in much the same fashion that taking hands off bike handles of a bike does not lead to loss of control. This was true for inline engined aircraft which did not rotate like rotary engines which introduced a rotational vector that required constant hands on time of the controls to keep the plane from spinning out of control. The Sopwith was such a plane. But why a pilot would want to fly a tail heavy plane is beyond me. Perhaps Rick Duiven who is an aeronautical engineer can answer9 this puzzle for you.
An after thought: I remember now that some planes were built either nose or tail heavy and no one cared abut CG balance.

IBS: My understanding is that an aircraft is balanced around its center of gravity, in such a fashion that if hands were taken off the stick in the center or neutral position the plane would remain in conrtrol, in much the same fashion that taking hands off bike handles of a bike does not lead to loss of control. This was true for inline engined aircraft which did not rotate like rotary engines which introduced a rotational vector that required constant hands on time of the controls to keep the plane from spinning out of control. The Sopwith was such a plane. But why a pilot would want to fly a tail heavy plane is beyond me. Perhaps Rick Duiven who is an aeronautical engineer can answer9 this puzzle for you.
An after thought: I remember now that some planes were built either nose or tail heavy and no one cared abut CG balance.

A aircraft with an aft CG responds very quickly to control inputs, but would require expert pilot skills to fly. It's a fine line though, too far aft (CG behind about 35-40% of the wing chord IIRC) and the plane will not fly at all.

Hi

From studying those aircraft where there is enough information on where the CG was, most of them were trimmed in the period to climb hands off. Partly, this was probably a prejudice of the period, tail heavy "feels" lively. Partly, the way the airfoils of the period change center of pressure over the envelope of the aircraft, there is a sort of sense to the approach.

Rocky

[Lufbery]

Hi

From studying those aircraft where there is enough information on where the CG was, most of them were trimmed in the period to climb hands off. Partly, this was probably a prejudice of the period, tail heavy "feels" lively. Partly, the way the airfoils of the period change center of pressure over the envelope of the aircraft, there is a sort of sense to the approach.

Rocky

Rocky,

How much of the plane's flight characteristics were due to rigging, and how much was simply a result of the design? IIRC, Frank Tallman claimed in his book, [i]Flying the Old Planes]/i] that most WWI planes flew tail heavy. I took that to mean that they flew that way by nature. I wonder what would have happened if he had re-rigged. ???

Regards,

Hmmm

What I was referring to on why it made sense(ya I have Tallman, one of my heros!). The airfoils of the period have what is called a "pitch forward" movement. Speeds go up, more pitch. With rotaries mostly running full on, this is worse than with a throttle. I would assume an alb.for instance could be set up to cruise hands off. A hands off climb is safer than a hands off pitch forward dive. Easier to keep a little forward pressure on the stick than keep back pressure which tends to produce PIO in most situation.
Rigging, as in adjusting the static incidence of the tail or main plains is not the only factor, also center of Gravity. This pitchforward moment on the airfoil actually produces the shorter noses we see in WWI versus later period. In this case, therefore, CG and Rigging AND pilot prejudices.

Fate