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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Gee, It's not Only Boeing that Has Wing Drop Issues

When I interviewed with Lockheed-Martin Fort Worth in the late 1990s, I talked with 3 or 4 people, and they all took pot-shots at the recently discovered problems with wing drop on the then new F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.

In tight turns in the transonic range, there would be unequal lift generated because the shock wave locations would be slightly different, and so you would get wing drop.

It now appears that that the F-35 JSF is at risk of the same behavior, at least for the extended wing CTOL carrier C model (also here), so they have put some spoilers outboard of the wing fold (see picture) just in case they cannot deal it with flap scheduling.

In the scheme of things, it's not a particularly big deal, but considering the constant razzing the boy in Fort Worth gave Boeing over the Super Bug, it is a bit amusing.

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