Okay, I can't find any direct reference on this one, so I'm hoping that more-knowledgeable people can confirm or deny my guesswork.
The case I'm looking at is for an arbitrary unswept tailless aircraft (flying plank) as shown in schematic below. The dark gray area is the elevator, and controls pitch primarily by changing the pitching moment of the wing.
What happens in ground effect? If I'm reading my sources correctly, the lift-curve slope of the wing (dCL/dalpha) increases in ground effect, but what change might this have on the pitching moment? My guesswork is that, overall, for a 3D wing, there will be an increase in pitching moment, just as there is an increase in CL, both due to the reduction in 3D span effects. In short, I'll have to pull more elevator to maintain a given angle of attack, just like in 'conventional' airplanes.
Am I right with that guess, or have I missed something?
Thanks in advance for any help.
The case I'm looking at is for an arbitrary unswept tailless aircraft (flying plank) as shown in schematic below. The dark gray area is the elevator, and controls pitch primarily by changing the pitching moment of the wing.
What happens in ground effect? If I'm reading my sources correctly, the lift-curve slope of the wing (dCL/dalpha) increases in ground effect, but what change might this have on the pitching moment? My guesswork is that, overall, for a 3D wing, there will be an increase in pitching moment, just as there is an increase in CL, both due to the reduction in 3D span effects. In short, I'll have to pull more elevator to maintain a given angle of attack, just like in 'conventional' airplanes.
Am I right with that guess, or have I missed something?
Thanks in advance for any help.
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