Download Warbirds Air Combat Arena
WarBirds FAQ Tech Support Training Pages
Bulletin Board Check your Scores! Daily/Nightly Events Fan Sites Squadrons Hangars Warbirds Enhancements Webring Historical Links
|
An aircraft maintains control in flight with its control surfaces (see the illustration below with its colorcoded control surfaces). These are:
The Ailerons, located on the outer part of the trailing edge of the wings, control the roll or bank of the airplane. The two ailerons (one on each wing), work in opposite directions to each other. When the left one is raised, the right one is lowered. The roll/bank of the aircraft is controlled by the side to side movement of the joystick.
 Animation by Karaya One of the Flying Pigs
The pitch, or the up and down movement of the aircraft is controlled by the Elevator. It is located on the trailing edge of the horizontal tail assembly and is controlled by the forward and backward movement of the joystick. Pulling the joystick back will move the elevator up, causing the nose of the aircraft to point up. Similarly, pushing the joystick forward will move the elevator down and pitch the nose down.
 Animation by Karaya One of the Flying Pigs
On the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer is the Rudder. This controls the yaw or the left/right sliding movements of the aircraft. On a real aircraft, this is controlled by the foot pedals. Warbirds supports the use of rudder pedals, but for those who don't have pedals, the rudder may be manipulated with the following keys: A will move the rudder left, causing left yaw forces, D will move the rudder right initiating right yaw force, and S will center the rudder.
 Animation by Karaya One of the Flying Pigs
The Flaps are located on the underside of the trailing edge of the wings, inboard of the ailerons. This set of control surfaces, when lowered, changes the cross sectional shape (airfoil) of the wing. By lowering the flaps, more surface area on the wing is created, thus increasing lift. This enables you to lower your stall speed and increase your Angle-of-Attack (AoA). However, the flaps also increase the drag on the aircraft, which reduces speed. Flaps are most commonly used for take off and landing.
The Landing Gear on most World War II aircraft was retractable, with a few notable exceptions like the Stuka. Retracting the landing gear smooths out the overall aircraft profile, thus decreasing drag and increasing performance.
Physics of Flight
|