PRIMARY CONTROL-AILERON

Ailerons are the primary control surfaces are located near the
wing tips and hinged to the aileron spar to become part of the
trailing edge of the wing.
Ailerons usually have differential movement. i.e., when the
aileron on one wing goes up, the aileron on the other wing
goes down.
Ailerons are connected by cables, bell cranks, pulleys or pushpull tubes to each other and to the control wheel.
Stick to the right, roll to the right, Stick to the left, roll to
the left.

Moving the control wheel to the right causes the right aileron
to deflect upward and the left aileron to deflect downward.
The upward deflection of the right aileron decreases the
camber resulting in decreased lift on the right wing.
The corresponding downward deflection of the left aileron
increases the camber resulting in increased lift on the left
wing.
Thus, the increased lift on the left wing and the decreased lift
on the right wing cause the airplane to roll to the right.
Movement of the ailerons gives lateral control (roll control) of
the aircraft about longitudinal axis.
Ailerons span perhaps the outer 35% of each wing and occupy
perhaps the aft 20% of the wing chord at that location.
However, many large transport aircraft have two sets of
ailerons: one in the conventional outboard location, and one
inboard.
For low speed flight, both sets of ailerons operate to provide
the needed lateral control.
For high speed flight, only the inboard ailerons are active.
During the high speed flight, if both the sets of ailerons are
active, the aerodynamic effectiveness of the outboard ailerons
would be too great, possibly causing too rapid movement,
thereby inducing over-control.
Ailerons may be organized to droop for take-off.
Sometimes the ailerons are interconnected with spoilers
(asymmetric operation) to improve roll control.

Ailerons may have autopilot input.

Ailerons may have an interconnection with rudder to correct
for any aileron drag.
There are a number of configurations which, used singly or
jointly, reduce aileron drag.
If the outer ailerons are operated at high speeds, the stress on
the wing tips may twist the leading edge of the wing
downwards and produce aileron reversal.

DIFFERENTIAL AILERONS

With differential ailerons, one aileron is raised a greater

distance than the other aileron is lowered for a given
movement of the control wheel.
This produces an increase in drag on the descending wing.
The greater drag results from deflecting the up aileron on the
descending wing to a greater angle than the down aileron on
the rising wing.

 While adverse yaw is reduced, it is not eliminated completely.

FRISE-TYPE AILERONS

In this type of aileron, the leading edge of the up-going aileron

protrudes below the wing undersurface, increasing parasite
drag on the down-going wing.
With a Frise-type aileron, when pressure is applied to the
control wheel, the aileron that is being raised pivots on an
offset hinge.
This projects the leading edge of the aileron into the airflow
and creates drag.
This helps equalize the drag created by the lowered aileron on
the opposite wing and reduces adverse yaw.
The Frise-type aileron also forms a slot so that air flows
smoothly over the lowered aileron, making it more effective at
high angles of attack.
Frise-type ailerons also may be designed to function
differentially.
Like the differential aileron, the Frise-type aileron does not
eliminate adverse yaw entirely.
Coordinated rudder application is still needed wherever
ailerons are applied.

DROOP AILERONS

On a high lift aircraft, the ailerons are interconnected to the

flaps.
In this arrangement, as the flaps are extended, the ailerons
droop to add more lift and better control response at slower
speeds.

On a few aircraft, ailerons designed to 'droop' when the

trailing edge flaps are lowered to certain positions, act as
additional plain flaps.
Roll control is retained, but extra lift (and drag) is generated
during landing.
These surfaces are usually referred to as Flaperons or
sometimes called droop ailerons.
Droop ailerons are usually fitted on high performance aircraft
and are used during the landing phase of the aircraft.
COUPLED AILERONS AND RUDDER

Coupled ailerons and rudder means these controls are linked.

This is accomplished with rudder-aileron interconnect springs,
which help correct for aileron drag by automatically deflecting
the rudder at the same time the ailerons are deflected.
For example, when the control yoke is moved to produce a left
roll, the interconnect cable and spring pulls forward on the left
rudder pedal just enough to prevent the nose of the airplane
from yawing to the right.
The force applied to the rudder by the springs can be
overridden if it becomes necessary to slip the airplane.

EFFECT OF USING AILERON ON AIRCRAFT MOVEMENT

The aileron movement increases the lift generated by the

outer section of one wing whilst decreasing that from the
other.
Thus the changed lift forces (at a distance from the aircraft's
longitudinal axis) impart a rolling moment in the lateral plane
about that axis.

This rolling moment is primarily used to initiate a turn but

other maneuvers depend on the amount and timing of aileron
movement.
ADVERSE YAW

Since the downward deflected aileron produces more lift, it

also produces more drag. This added drag attempts to yaw
the airplanes nose in the direction of the raised wing. This is
called adverse yaw.

HOW TO COUNTERACT ADVERSE YAW?

The rudder is used to counteract adverse yaw, and the

amount of rudder control required is greatest at low
airspeeds, high angles of attack, and with large aileron
deflections.
However, with lower airspeeds, the vertical stabilizer/rudder
combination becomes less effective, and magnifies the control
problems associated with adverse yaw.
All turns are coordinated by use of ailerons, rudder, and
elevator.
Applying aileron pressure is necessary to place the airplane in
the desired angle of bank, while simultaneously applying
rudder pressure to counteract the resultant adverse yaw.
During a turn, the angle of attack must be increased by
applying elevator pressure because more lift is required than
when in straight-and level flight.
The steeper the turn, the more back elevator pressure is
needed.
As the desired angle of bank is established, aileron and rudder
pressures should be relaxed.
This will stop the bank from increasing because the aileron
and rudder control surfaces will be neutral in their streamlined
position.
Elevator pressure should be held constant to maintain a
constant altitude.
The rollout from a turn is similar to the roll-in except the flight
controls are applied in the opposite direction.

 Aileron and rudder are applied in the direction of the rollout or

toward the high wing.
As the angle of bank decreases, the elevator pressure should
be relaxed as
necessary to maintain altitude.

AILERON DRAG

When an aileron is depressed, its angle of attack is increased

while that of the opposite aileron is decreased.
At the same time the drag of the down going aileron, which is
moving into a region of high pressure, becomes greater than
that of the other which is moving into a low pressure region.
When the drag set up by the down going aileron is
appreciably greater than that of the other, the effect is to yaw
the nose in the opposite direction, to which the bank is
applied.
This effect is called THE AILERON DRAG.
Aileron drag is usually more apparent at low speeds because
of the larger aileron movements that are required for a given
rate of roll. It is also called the controls at low speed.
The adverse yaw due to unequal drag from the ailerons can
be reduced by giving differential movement to the ailerons,
so that for a given control column movement the down going
aileron moves through a small angular distance than the up
going aileron, thus practically equalizing the drag.
PREVENTION OF AILERON DRAG

Since aileron drag is produced each time the control wheel

deflects the ailerons, many manufacturers connect the control

wheel to the rudder control system through an

interconnecting spring.
When the wheel is moved to produce a right roll, the
interconnect cable and spring pulls forward on the right
rudder pedal just enough to prevent the nose of the airplane
yawing to the left.
Airplanes whose rudder pedals are connected rigidly to the
nose wheel for steering have the interconnect cables attached
to the rudder cables with connector clamps in the aft end of
the fuselage.
The effect is the same for connection at either location.
A small amount of rudder force is applied when the ailerons
are deflected, but this force can be overridden because it is
applied through a spring.
The rudder pedals are connected to the rudder horn with steel
control cables and, on an airplane with a nose wheel steering
mechanism.
Forward movement of the rudder pedal will deflect the rudder
to the right.

AILERON REVERSAL
At low speeds, an aircraft has a relatively high angle of attack

that is close to the stall angle.

If the ailerons are operated while the wings are at this high
angle of attack, the increase in the effective angle of attack
may cause the wing with the aileron deflected downwards to
have a lower co-efficient of lift than the other, instead of the
normal higher co-efficient of lift.
This will cause the wing to drop instead of rise and the aircraft
is said to have suffered low speed aileron reversal.
When ailerons are deflected at high speeds the aerodynamic
forces set-up may be sufficiently large to twist the outer end
of the wing

HIGH SPEED AILERON REVERSAL

 This can cause the position of the chord line to alter so that
the result is the opposite of what would be expected.
That is, a downward deflection of the aileron causes the wing
to drop and an upward deflection causes the wing to rise.
Under these circumstances we say that the aircraft has
suffered a high speed aileron reversal.
On modern large transport aircraft, those fly at relatively high
speed, and high speed military aircraft this becomes a serious
problem.
SOLUTIONS TO THIS PROBLEM INCLUDE

Building sufficiently stiff wings that can resist torsional

divergence beyond the maximum speed of the aircraft.
Use of two sets of ailerons, one outboard pair that operate at
low speeds and one inboard pair that operate at high speeds,
where the twisting moment will be less than when the ailerons
are positioned outboard.
Use of spoilers either independently or in conjunction with
ailerons, where their use reduces the lift on the down-going
wing by interrupting the airflow over the top surface. Spoilers
do not cause the same torsional divergence of the wing and
have the additional advantage of providing increased drag on
the down-going wing, thus helping the adverse yaw problem,
created by aileron drag.

AILERON EFFECTIVENESS

The span wise flow of the boundary layer increases in severity

as the angle of attack is increased because of the more
pronounced pressure gradient at the higher angles.
Since the ailerons of most aircraft are situated at the wing
tips, in the region where the adverse effects of the thickened
boundary layer are greater, the effectiveness of the ailerons
tends to decrease, as the angle of attack is increased.
Therefore, comparatively large aileron movement is
necessary.