Flight Controls

A flight control system consists of the flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkage, and necessary operating mechanisms to control aircraft in flight. more...

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The fundamentals of aircraft controls have been explained in aeronautics. Discussion here centers on the underlying mechanisms of the flight controls. Generally the cockpit controls are arranged like this:

A control stick — or a control yoke attached to a column — for roll and pitch, which moves the ailerons when turned or deflected left and right, and moves the elevators when moved backwards or forwards; Rudder pedals for yaw, which move the rudder;

Even when an aircraft uses different kinds of surfaces, such as ruddervators or flaperons, the aircraft will still normally be designed so that the yoke or stick controls pitch and roll in the conventional way, to avoid pilot confusion.

In addition to the primary controls for roll, pitch, and yaw, there are often secondary controls available to give the pilot finer control over flight or to ease the workload. The most commonly-available control is a wheel or other device to control elevator trim, so that the pilot does not have to maintain constant backward or forward pressure to hold a specific pitch (other types of trim, for rudder and ailerons, are common on larger aircraft but may also appear on smaller ones). Many aircraft have wing flaps, controlled by a switch or stick, which alter the shape of the wing to make it easier to control at slower speeds for takeoff and landing, and some have movable landing gear, also controlled by a switch or stick, which can be retracted to decrease drag while in the air. Many other, more advanced control systems may be available, including cowl flaps (which add drag as well as cooling the engine), slats, spoilers, and air brakes.

Flight control systems

Mechanical

Mechanical flight control systems are the most basic designs. They were used in early aircraft and currently in small aeroplanes where the aerodynamic forces are not excessive. The flight control systems uses a collection of mechanical parts such as rods, cables, pulleys and sometimes chains to transmit the forces of the cockpit controls to the control surfaces. The Cessna Skyhawk is a typical example.

Since an increase in control surface area in bigger and faster aircraft leads to a large increase in the forces needed to move them, complicated mechanical arrangements are used to extract maximum mechanical advantage in order to make the forces required bearable to the pilots. This arrangement is found on bigger or higher performance propeller aircraft such as the Fokker 50.

Some mechanical flight control systems use servo tabs that provide aerodynamic assistance to reduce complexity. Servo tabs are small surfaces hinged to the control surfaces. The mechanisms move these tabs, aerodynamic forces in turn move the control surfaces reducing the amount of mechanical forces needed. This arrangement was used in early piston-engined transport aircraft and in early jet transports.

Read more at Wikipedia.org