Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny .45
As for the cannons helping stability...I'm dubious. Maybe by adding a little inertia to dampen things a bit, but inertia has it's opposite, momentum.
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I only meant that they would help reduce any inertia coupling.
Dutch roll is present in all flying machines to some extent, and results from the fact that control surfaces will always produce some slight effect in all three axes, even if intended for primarily one axis. It can happen at very low speeds. I've seen it occur in helicopters at 100 knots. Mass distribution will have very little effect on this. Span wise mass distribution can effect roll rate, and has a very pronounced effect on the rate of change of roll rate in response to a control input. Cannon in the wings may slightly increase the maximum roll rate (P), but will have a much more noticeable effect of decreasing the rate of increase of roll rate (P dot) after a given control input. This could be very upsetting to a pilot in air-to-air combat.
All very hard to put in words. A graph would be much easier
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