for Pyro- Flettner Rudder of the G10 (500kb pic)

[niklas]

The G10 had also those additional little
rudder which moved in the other direction
than the main rudder or aileron (bottom right)

Other interesting details you can see in this picture:
the asymmetrical shape of the vertical stabilizer (top left) with flettner rudder.
the movable front lip at the cooling (bottom left) and the cooling flaps system (really would like to see it in AH)

And the front window was at the top definitly more narrow than above the engine. It had a width from the middle of one MG to the middle of the other one.

niklas

 

[funked]

Great stuff Niklas.  

I've always read test pilots saying the earlier 109s required a constant "foot load" to hold the plane straight.  Interesting to see how the engineers tried to solve the problem.

[niklas]

Funked, donīt forget, the Flettner rudder
isnīt used for trim (you would need only one, either on the left or on the right ailleron), and the asymmetrical rudder wonīt perfectly outtrim the 109 in every flight situation.

These little additional rudder were added to
reduce stick forces. A trim
rudder would deflect in the other direction,
in the same direction like the whole aileron.

For the trim, there were still fitted these small little tabs which could be modified at ground

niklas

[chisel]

Flettner rudder = balance tabs  ?

Cool, thought they put trim tabs on the late 109's not balance tabs.


Trim tabs ARE moved opposite of the main control surface.

[Andy Bush]

Just for heck of it, here's some info on Herr Flettner!


>>Flettner, Anton

b. Nov. 1, 1885, Eddersheim, Ger.
d. Dec. 29, 1961, New York City
German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also invented the Flettner trim-tab control for aircraft and the Flettner marine rudder.

Flettner directed an aeronautical and hydrodynamic research institute in Amsterdam following World War I. In 1926 he established in Berlin an aircraft company that produced the Flettner Fl 282 and other helicopters for the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) during World War II. After the war he went to the U.S., where he conducted helicopter research for the U.S. Army and was president of the Flettner Aircraft Corporation, Kew Gardens, Queens, N.Y.

[EDO43]

Here in the US those little rudders are called servo tabs.  They can (depending upon the design) be used both as a trim tab and to help reduce control forces on the control suface by moving in the opposite direction than that of the main control surface.

[funked]

Chisel:  Yes I think they are balance tabs.

Edo:  Servo tabs are different from balance tabs.  Servo tabs are directly actuated by the flight controls.

[This message has been edited by funked (edited 01-10-2001).]