Spitfire stall characteristic

Personally I don’t believe a word of what Mark12 said – and to prove he is wrong I am quite prepared to spend several hours in said Spitfire testing his ludicrous theory – only in the interest of scientific research, naturally! 😀 😀 😀 It wouldn’t be fun, no, not at all! 😀

Casting my mind back to a distant memory of “exciting” aerodynamics lectures…..

The very reason the Spitfire used the beautiful eliptical wing shape is to make benefit of the very low stall speed characteristics and controllability at & near the stall. As has been pointed out (okay so Mark12 is telling the truth, but it was worth a try!), the eliptical wing design ensures a stall occurs nearer the root than the tip, thus retaining lateral control via the ailerons even in a stall. The shape also reduces tip drag considerably.

Every wing shape has pro’s and cons and the end use usually dictates the shape used – ie there’s little point in a swept-wing design on a single engined piston trainer such as a Cesna 152 or PA-28. Similarly, a pure high-lift ratio wing would be less than ideal on a sub-sonic airliner. Compromises are made and elements of several shapes are usually incorporated into the final design. The cross-sectional profile of the wing is also very critical.

That said, the eliptical wing not only serves well for the reasons stated, but it provides us with the best looking aircraft ever built in history – IMHO

Thanks chaps, been a help so far 🙂

I wonder if there had been any modifications or damage to the wing following the years since its construction and first flight? I do know that a barndoor-type airbrake was fitted to reduce the float on landing.

The Spit wing was known for a progressive and benign stall with plenty of buffet warning. The inner portion of the wing stalls before the tips, thus aileron control is effective well into a deep stall – this was used to effect by some Spit pilots, I recall, in leading Me 109s which had a much more malignant stall into situations where the German plane would lose control while the Spit was still happily flying.

While we wait for a real Spitfire pilot to come along ….Allan

Whilst not a real Spitfire pilot, I have induced a stall in the two seater under instruction. Throttle back, wings level, hold the nose up with the stick until it finally gently drops. No drama, no wing drop, but I applied far too much recovery power. 😮

I once saw a pilot flying a Griffon powered Spitfire, downwind to land at 1000′, induce not one but two stalls and recover. Intrigued and initially alarmed, I asked him on landing was there a problem. He replied ” No – just checking the numbers”

Clearly supreme skill and confidence on what must be a very predictable and safe aircraft but I wouldn’t want him to practise on my machine. 🙂

Mark

It’s funny you mention large-scale Spit models having gentle stall – I had some correspondence with the owner of the Isaacs Spitfire, (G-BBJI), and he stated that:

Contary to the well documented flight report a total fast right wing drop now occurs at the stall with little to no warning at 44knots. I therefore do not let the round out, last look, speed drop below 61 knots and in strong winds with a gradient add on half the wind ground speed because of the very flat approach on finals.

Yet, the Isaacs Spit has the same wing section/washout etc that the full-size Spit has.

:confused:

Well, that’s pretty much on the mark Kye.

Whilst I don’t have any pilots reports to hand, everybody who’s flown one will tell you that the stall really is quite benign and gives you plenty of warning in the form of a well defined buffet. Even on the later MK’s (VIII,IX & XIV etc) it was the same story – and even during an acclerated one.

I have a DVD with some incockpit footage of AR501 being stalled prior to landing at OW (flown by a famous aviator who sometime graces us with his presence on this forum!) and you can see how well behaved it is. I guess you could still drop a wing if determined, but I think you’d have to have the stick right back in your stomach and ignore all the signs that the aircraft is about to depart.

Anyway, I’ll let those who have been fortunate enough to fly one give their opinions! 😮

Cheers

Paul