NTSB Releases Reno Air Races Report

[csadn]

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/ntsb-r...MTk3NTc4ODg2S0

Esp. notable is how much wing was chopped off the P-51....

At least they didn't suggest canceling it outright....

[Linz]

They took 8 foot out of the wingspan and it still flew well sort of.
That seems like a receipe for disaster.
Linz

[csadn]

They took 8 foot out of the wingspan and it still flew well sort of.
That seems like a receipe for disaster.

Lift = drag -- by shortening the wing, one decreases lift, which decreases drag. The problems really crop up on takeoff and landing; with less lift, those speeds are increased. The problem the acft. in question suffered was a loss-of-trim -- there's a whole bunch of asymmetric forces involved in flight, one of which is the tendency of the tail to push the nose up; the trim tab allows these forces to be counterbalanced while allowing the rest of the control surface to still be usable. If the tab comes off, all those asymmetric forces show up at once (pics of the crash show the pilot's head wasn't visible in the cockpit, which means he was lying on the floor...), with the effect demonstrated.