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Use of Flaps

Flap extension during landings provides several advantages by:

• Producing greater lift and permitting lower landing speed.

• Producing greater drag, permitting a steep descent angle without airspeed increase.

• Reducing the length of the landing roll.

Flap extension has a definite effect on the airplane’s pitch behavior. The increased camber from flap
deflection produces lift primarily on the rear portion of the wing, producing a nose-down force. This pitch
behavior varies on different airplane designs. In general, though:

• Flap deflection of up to 15° primarily produces lift with minimal drag. The airplane has a tendency to
balloon up with initial flap deflection because of the lift increase. The nose down pitching moment,
however, tends to offset the balloon.

• Flap deflection beyond 15° produces a large increase in drag. In high-wing airplanes, a significant nose up
pitching moment can occur because the resulting downwash increases the airflow over the horizontal tail.

When the flaps are lowered, the airspeed will decrease unless the power is increased or the pitch attitude
lowered. On final approach, therefore, you must estimate where the airplane will land through discerning
judgment of the descent angle. If it appears that the airplane is going to overshoot the desired landing spot,
use more flaps, reduce power, and lower pitch attitude for a steeper approach.

If the desired landing spot is being undershot, shallow the approach by increasing power and pitch to
readjust the descent angle. Never retract the flaps to correct for an undershoot, since that will suddenly
decrease the lift and cause the airplane to sink even more rapidly.
Flaps are located on the trailing edge of each wing, usually between the fuselage and the ailerons, and extend
downward (and often outward) from the wing when put into use. The purpose of the flaps is to generate
more lift at slower airspeed, which enables the airplane to fly at a greatly reduced speed with a lower risk of
stalling. This is especially useful during takeoff and landing. When extended further, flaps also generate
more drag which slows the airplane down much faster than just reducing throttle.

Flaps increase lift and drag by changing the camber of the airfoil, and allow lower airspeeds. There is also an effect of shifting
the center of pressure (C of P) aft. There may be an immediate decrease in airspeed due to the increase in drag until the aircraft regain
stability by nosing down.

Flaps are frequently used when landing because they lower the stall speed and increase the angle of descent. The pilot will also hav
better visibility due to the lower nose position caused by the aft C of P.

Flaps increase both lift and induced drag, but a small amount (e.g. 10 degrees) of take-off flaps may provide enough extra lift to all
the plane to become airborne sooner, without a large increase in drag, allowing for a shorter takeoff roll. Whether takeoff flaps can be
is declared in each aircraft's standard operating procedures
Flaps change the camber of the wing's airfoil. This in turn changes the zero-lift angle of attack, increases the
maximum lift potential and, in case of fowler-type flaps, the wing's area.

Airliners use flaps on both take-off and landing, and most of the time they are only partly deflected. Full
deflection is only set on final approach to reduce the landing speed as much as possible.

When simple camber flaps are used, the drag increase is negligible for small deflections (±10° for a 20%
flap), and they can be used for both take-off and landing. Other types of flaps are designed to increase drag
(split flap, Zap flap) and should be used only for landing. If flight speed stays constant, a flap deflection will
only change induced drag if it redistributes lift over the wingspan. Modern gliders use camber flaps inboard
and flaperons (a combination of aileron and flap) outboard, and changing flap settings will not affect induced
drag.

Generally, the purpose of flaps is to shift the minimum airfoil drag to the desired lift coefficient cLcL.
Especially laminar airfoils have a pronounced range of lift coefficients with low drag. The pilot should
attempt to stay within this region of minimum drag, and flaps give him/her the means to achieve this. See
below for an example of an airfoil at a Reynolds number of 1 Mio.

Flaps for lift increase work the same way, but change camber much more. Normally, they need to be
combined with leading edge devices (slats) which change camber at the airfoil's nose to unfold their full
potential. Below are some examples for flaps, in combination with proper leading edge devices. Note that
the solid outline of the fowler flap is the position for landing, while the dashed outline is the position for
take-off.
The amount of lift generated by a wing depends on the shape of the airfoil, the wing area, and the
aircraft velocity.

During takeoff and landing the airplane's velocity is relatively low. To keep the lift high (to avoid objects on
the ground!), airplane designers try to increase the wing area and change the airfoil shape by putting some
moving parts on the wings' leading and trailing edges. The part on the leading edge is called a slat, while the
part on the trailing edge is called a flap. The flaps and slats move along metal tracks built into the wings.
Moving the flaps aft (toward the tail) and the slats forward increases the wing area. Pivoting the leading edge
of the slat and the trailing edge of the flap downward increases the effective camber of the airfoil, which
increases the lift. In addition, the large aft-projected area of the flap increases the drag of the aircraft. This
helps the airplane slow down for landing.

Besides increasing drag, powerful flaps change the pitching moment of the wing by shifting the center of lift
backwards, which requires sufficient tail size and control power. On airliners, the incidence of the full
horizontal tail can be adjusted in order to create enough downforce to counteract the pitching moment. Note
on the picture of the An-70 below that the stabilizer has a slat which operates in the opposite direction to that
of the wing.
The following control surfaces can be found on wings. Slats and flaps, are moving surfaces on the leading
and trailing edges of the wing respectively, that when extending they increase the wing area and thus
increase lift. During landing, flaps pivot downwards to increase drag and help the aircraft slow down.
Spoilers are fitted to the top surface of the wing. When operated, which is usually at touchdown, they also
increase drag and reduce lift. Ailerons, are control surfaces attached to the wing to control roll, and elevators
at the rare wing are the horizontal control surfaces attached to the horizontal stabilizer to control pitch.
There are many theories of how lift is generated. Unfortunately, many of the theories found in
encyclopedias, on web sites, and even in some textbooks are incorrect, causing unnecessary confusion for
students.

The theory described on this slide is one of the most widely circulated, incorrect explanations. The theory
can be labeled the "Longer Path" theory, or the "Equal Transit Time" theory. The theory states that airfoils
are shaped with the upper surface longer than the bottom. The air molecules (the little colored balls on the
figure) have farther to travel over the top of the airfoil than along the bottom. In order to meet up at the
trailing edge, the molecules going over the top of the wing must travel faster than the molecules moving
under the wing. Because the upper flow is faster, then, from Bernoulli's equation, the pressure is lower.
The difference in pressure across the airfoil produces the lift.
In order to realize the flexible deformation of the flap, it is necessary to use the deflection curve of the skin
material. The deflection is the centroid of the cross-section along the vertical axis, and the direction of the
line displacement refers to the bending deformation. The axis of the beam will be changed into a plane curve
in the longitudinal plane of the beam, which is known as the beam's deflection curve. This curve is shown
in Fig. 40 The l is the length of curve in the horizontal direction and y is the deformation in the vertical
direction, which can be seen from the Ref. The functional expression of deflection curve, ν(x), is usually
expressed up to third order, as in Eq :

ν(x)=Ax3+Bx2+Cx+D

The constants A and B are related to the material properties and stress conditions whereas C and D are
arbitrary.

This design guarantees that the curve of flap shape does not manifest second-order discontinuous points over
the whole deformation process, and also ensures a smooth transition in the pressure distribution under flap
deformation. The eccentric beam is rotated 90° upward and downward, which respectively raises and presses
the trailing edge of the flap to realize variable camber from 50% of the flap chord.

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