Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Fuchs, Richard.
This investigation covers only that phase of airplane accidents which are the result of sideslip. We examine the circumstances under which this occurs, study the behavior of present-day airplane types (monoplane, conventional and staggered biplane) therein and endeavor to find a solution whereby this danger may be avoided.
With the object of further clarifying the problem of spinning, the equilibrium of the forces and moments acting on an airplane is discussed in light of the most recent test data. Convinced that in a spin the flight attitude by only small angles of yaw is more or less completely steady, the study is primarily devoted to an investigation of steady spin with no side slip. At small angles, wholly arbitrary and perfectly steady spins may be forced, depending on the type of control displacements. But at large angles only very steep and only "approaching steady" spins are possible, no matter what the control displacements.
This report deals first with the fundamental data required for the investigation. These are chiefly the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an airplane in a flat spin. It is shown that these forces and moments depend principally on the angle of attack and on the rotation about the path axis, and can therefore either be measured in a wind tunnel or calculated from wind-tunnel measurements of lift, drag and moment about the leading edge of the wing of an airplane model at rest. The lift, drag and moments about the span axis are so greatly altered by the rapid rotation in a flat spin, that they can no longer be regarded as independent of rotation. No substantial change in the angles of attack and glide occurring in a flat spin is involved. The cross-wind force, as compared with the lift and drag, can be disregarded in a flat spin.
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