> One would think that, > unlike a Bonanza, a modern commercial transport > would limit the ability of the > pilots to damage their own aircraft via structural > filters and limiters.
WHAT??? Design maneuvering speed is "Va" and is simply and _only_ Va = Vs * sqrt(g load limit) Where Vs is the stall speed associated with the aircraft configuration for which Va is being specified (and which is legal in the Va range). The g load limit is implicit to the certification category required. There is no mention in this of whether the aircraft can fall apart below this speed, whether the pilots can damage it, or anything else. In any aircraft, from a C152 on up to an airliner, you can damage the aircraft at very low indicated airspeeds by suitable control inputs. There is a specific situation with respect to which Va has an impact on the structural safety of the flight. That situation assumes * There are no angular rotations of the aircraft * The airmass is moving at constant speed with no vorticity * The control inputs are symmetric and flight is coordinated These assumptions hold true for sudden deflections of the elevators, and for transient loads caused by up and down drafts, only. You can be sure that an aircraft manufacturer would have a whole lot of patents if they had a method to recognize all the situations that can cause structural overloading and recover before these are reached. That would be the holy grail of FCS design, and of aerodynamic modelling! _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
