Aileron Design to Counter Adverse Yaw

Abstract

The thesis project was chosen to represent an original idea to avoid being an assistant on someone"s research project. This research explores an idea developed several years ago but with no suitable opportunity to test. The fact that the idea worked under test has been very satisfying because the idea can be justified completely from the standpoint of aviation safety. An interest in aviation and aeronautical engineering made the subject of this research an appropriate choice for a thesis. The design proposed is intended for light generaL aviation aircraft flown by pilots with low experience. The basic principle of this design is to add parasite drag to replace lest induced drag on the aircraft wing when ailerons are displaced. Originally it was predicted that the design would have to be optimized for a narrow speed range. The wind tunnel testing showed that the idea works and can be optimized over a large speed range due to a self modulating effect of the drag. The lift and drag characteristics of the wind tunnel model tested showed that it has promiae as a glide path control device also. The design has merit over others used to counter adverse yaw because it is basically a control surface replacement and could be retrofitted to existing aircraft.