Aerowings

  • I have noticed two types of aerowings within different aircraft TMD files. One is the same as the one described in the wiki section, ie a single block. The other breaks down stations into separate entries. What is the difference between these?

    Also, in the Q400 aerowing the Flap0Area is 0.0 and the Flap1Area is 0.7. These do not seem to make sense as it means the aileron has no area and the flaps are 0.7 sq mtrs, which is tiny. I'm a little confused. :/:/

    Steve

  • The aerowing is the original aerodynamics simulation of a wing with only two trailing edge flaps and an airbrake input as well as one root and one tip airfoil. The Flap0Area and Flap1Area define how much additional area is added to the wing area as the flap is deflected. Since most ailerons do not change the wing area at all it should be 0. Fowler flaps that extend beyond the trailing edge have a noticeable movement to the rear though and slightly increase the wing area.

    The aerowing2 is the new simulation which allows an individual airfoil, trailing edge flap, leading edge slat and spoiler for each wing station. This means you are no longer limited to two flaps (aileron+flap usually) but with this wing you can have split triple ailerons, a multitude of spoilers (roll spoilers, ground spoilers, load alleviation, etc.) which can fail individually and also affect the physics directly, outer aileron and high-speed ailerons, inner leading edge flaps and outer leading edge slats and so on. Using my tmEdit tool it is possible to convert the old aerowings into aerowings2. The airfoils per wing station also allow for much more flexibility for giving only the outer wing sections the characteristics for ailerons whilst allowing the inner wings to have proper Fowler flaps that move aft and increase wing area. And of course with the leading edge slats the stall characteristics are greatly changed over the old aerowings.

    My recommendation:
    If your airplane has leading edge devices or has more than two trailing edge flap types, then use the new aerowing2. Otherwise you can still use the aerowing "1" which is still well suited for smaller aircraft.

    Regards,

    Jan