Process for improving the landing of an aircraft
View Patent ↗A process for improving the landing of an aircraft may include, prior to the aircraft contacting the ground, nose-up under-deflecting the aircraft's adjustable horizontal tail plane and nose-up deflecting the elevators. This arrangement increases the maximum nosedown swing of the elevators to increase the ability of the elevators to make the nose of the aircraft tilt downwards.
1. A process for improving the landing of an aircraft comprising an adjustable horizontal tail plane to which are hinged elevators, said adjustable horizontal tail plane being nose-up deflected by an angle of inclination of predetermined value with a view to the making of contact of said aircraft with the ground and said elevators being nose-down deflected after said making of contact so as to tilt down the nose of said aircraft rolling over the ground, said method comprising, prior to said making of contact of said aircraft with the ground:
deflecting said adjustable horizontal tail plane, in the nose-up direction, with a lower actual value of angle of inclination than a value corresponding to a customary configuration in which said elevators are in direct aerodynamic alignment with said adjustable horizontal tail plane; and
deflecting said elevators, in the noseup direction, in such a way that the combination of the nose-up action of said adjustable horizontal tail plane and of the nose-up action of said elevators engenders a noseup resultant aerodynamic force which is at least approximately equal to that engendered by the assembly of said adjustable horizontal tail plane and of said elevators in said customary configuration so that a dissymmetry in the authority of said elevators is generated, increasing said authority in the nose-down direction and reducing said authority in the nose-up direction.
2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the decreasing of the angle of nose-up inclination of said adjustable horizontal tail plane, equal to the difference between said value corresponding to the customary configuration and said actual value, brings about an increase of the maximum nose-down swing of said elevators at most equal to a third of the maximum nose-up swing that said elevators exhibit in said customary configuration.