MR Jan.

1943

NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS

ORIGINALLY ISSUED
January 1943 as
Memorandm Report

By Franlr T. Abbott, Jr. and W i l l i a m J. Undelwood

Langley Memorlal Aeronautical Laboratory

Langley Field., VEL.

WASHINGTON

NACA WARTIME REPORTS a r e reprints of papers originally issued t u provide rapid distribution of
advance research results to an authorized group requiring them for the w a r effort. They were pre-
viously held under a security status but are now unclassified. Some of these reports were not tech-
nically edited. A l l have been reproduced without change in order to expedite general distribution.

L - 615
 The r e s u l t s of f l i g h t i n v e s t i g a t i o n s showed that
a beT7910d t r a i l i n g - e d g e a i l e r o n gave as l o w o r a l o w e r

p r o f i l e dra,.; than a contour a i l e r o n . A s this was

contrary t o t h e g e n e r a l e x p e c t a t i o n , i t was f e l t
desirable t o conduct a wilid-tumel i n v e s t i g a t i o n of a
s c a l e model o f the wing section used i n flight. Section
p r o f i l e d r s g and section l i f t a t f l i g h t i",eyilolds numbers
were t o be obtained with t h e two t y p e s o f ailerons.
S e c t i m 3 r o f i l e d r n e and l i f t c c e f f l c i e n t s at i f e j n o l d s
numbers of a?proximately 6 , 0 0 0 ~ ~ 0 0 ,9,OOO,OOO, and
l3,OOOYClOO a r e preser,ted herein from t h e t e s t s Tn t h e WACA
t w o - d i m n s i o n a l 'low-turbulence p r e s s u r e t u n n e l .
MCIDEL
A s c a l e n o d e l hrving a w i q c h o r d c of 36 i_rches was
ma& t o correspond t o a n i n t e r n e d i a t e sectl.cn c v e r t h e

aileron ?ortion T r the wLnrJ IC, insl3es o u t b o r r e f r c m the

inboard end of t h e r i p h t a i l e r o r - of t h e 1.;'F-C,1 air'laric.
This was the same s e c t i o n u s e l ? i n rneasurlng p r o f i l e drag i n
 f - 2 - .
‘T --
f l i g h t ( r e f e r e n c e 1). Tlie o r d i n a t e s of the s e c t i o n
l.-bl.G--l)were masured .from the actual airalane
wing. Tlie s c a l e model, which WSS made o f lar3inated
mahogany, was f a i r e d ~ c c o r 6 ti o~ the
~ nes.:;urec! o r Z i n a t e s
w i t h t h e e x c e p t i o n cf s e v e r s l ,sli$it-ly u n f g . i r c r d i n a t e s 311

t h e upger and l o w e r s u r f r c e s i n t h e v i c i n i t y o f tY;c 3 . e e d . i y

edge, which wIei?e n e g l e c t e d i n f a i z h c t h e a i r f o i l csir,t,3tz.
This u n f s i r n e s s c~f’ th.e m e ~ . s i 1 . ~ 9orc?inates
d was probajly due

t o t h e ac,tual. RCrrjlanF: .,?j.n? ‘LI?In:r._ sIigl1t3.y u n f a i r

5 8.1; the

front s p a r . x: IY-L~?? vras ; w e s e n t cn t h e lower F a r f a c e of the

model a t tY.e 217 e r m kiIrli;e s i m i l e t i n ; L ;the contour of the

a i l e r o n . prcjezting 5ci car “,.e Isv:er s1:r;face a t the h h g e l i n e
T h i s blmp wns ? r e s e n t tl-e ?l.:.5.n E l r f oil c o n f i g u r e t i o n
(fig. 1) ELF re11 a s t h e ~YX) ai:.eron ccr:fiprations (figs. 2
and 3). 13.e m ~ d e l . \?i:‘iRS Kiac3.e
-I
ixi t a o p z r t s with a s i r g l e f r o n t

p a r t which assenbled Ivith one of t h r e e rear p a c t s t o form t h e

p l a n e a i r r o i l s e c t i o n (fig. 1) o r a n airfoil s e c t i o n 1::Ith
e i t h e r the 3.189~beveled t r a i l i n g - e d g e a i l e r o n ( f i g . 2 ) or
the 0 . 1 8 7 ~ contour-sheped zilei-on (fie;. 3). iIle Ifiteriial
1
7

shaFes i n t h e a i l e r o i ? balance chamber were s c a l e d f ~ o mt h e

a c t u a l s e c t i o n tested: 1x1 f l i g h t . i.,ot’r! a i l e r o n s were b l n c e d
77

a t o . C 1 3 ~ , w ~ ~ i c rke: s u l t e 2 :n a. Tvinq; chcrci s e c t i o n c of

about 36 .I inches for t h e beve7..e$ t r a l l ing-edce (0 -~i’iwrat;ion.

\.I

The b e v e l e d trailing-edge a i l e r o n c o n f i g u r a t i o n ‘)!as t e s t e d un-

sealed. The contour aileron c o n f ’ i g u r a t i o n was t e s t e d b o t h
u n s e a l e d and s e a l e d ,
~ ~~ ~~ ~
~ ~~ ~
I
I '
- 3 -
Lift am?. d r a ~measurements o r the model were xack by
methods d e s c r i b e d in reference 2 . The p o f i l e - d r a c and
lirt ccefficlents f o r all confI:;urations nere b a s e d or; n
1
A-
norrinal wing zk.,ord c of 35 %cches,
The c o n t o w ai2,c;Pon W a c sealod by :>lvpglr-ib: t h e a:! E T O ~

c u r t s i n gaps with a3deling c l a y . t - t~ the

The d i 3 c o r i t i ~ 1 . ~ . i a
gaps m s Rot f a i r e d cut, ,se chovm ir, t h e photohya2h of

figure 3.
- e .A_. ,--

'After f;lxis r e p o r t was issued i n I t s origl.iial form,

c e r t a i n refinements were made in the metho4 o f com?utinc
l i f t c o e f f i c i e n t s . All lift coefficients given in this
r e p o r t should therefore be o o r r e c t e d by the f'ollotvlng
equation:

where , c z is s e c t i o n l i f t coefficient presented in this

report m3d c i s glven i n t h e following table:
bb

Ai Le ron
d e f l e c t i on
6,
We)
0
2
5
10
28
T2
.' -5
-10
-18
Y
 -4-

RESULTS AND MSCVSSI619

The r e s u l t s of the t e s t s of the three configurations

are presented i n figures 4 to 12. Comparison curves of the
configurations are given i n f i w r e s 13 and 14. fileran &

effectiveness of the t w o a i l e r o n configurations I s

given i n table 11.
The comparison of section l f f t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s a t a
Reynolds number of 13,0008000, given i n f i g u r e 13, shows
t h a t the p l a i n a i r f o i l had the highest slope with a

(2) u=o
of 0,115; followed bjr the sealed contour a i l e r o n
(g)a=o
e$!!=*
configuration with n of O.J&; by the unsealed
contour aileron configuration with a -- of 0.112;

and l a s t by the beveled trailing-edge aileron configuration

with a (2)
. - CFO
of 0.105. A maximum section l i f t c o -

e f f i c i e n t of 1.75 for the p l a i n a i r f o i l section is very

good. The aiaeron configurations with the a i l e r o n n e u t r a l
show a loss i n maximum lift. Sealing the gaps of the
contour aileron had l i t t l e e f f e c t on e i t h e r the slope of
the l i f t curve o r the m a x i c u m l i f t coefficient.
The aileron effectiveness, presented i n table I1 as
the e f f e c t i v e change ' i n angle of attack per wit change i n
afleron angle (denoted by Aa/A6) shows that the contour
aileron, e i t h e r sealed o r axmaled, has an appreciably
 -5-
1
I
higher Aa/h6 than the Beveled trailing-edge aileron.
1
Sealing the a i l e r o n gaps of the contour a i l e r o n r e s u l t e d
Ln
i n a small iqrovement -i.n effectiveness,
Although no stucly of hinge momegts was inclu&d in
the present inveetigation, i t appears (reference 3 ) t h a t
t h i s l o s s i n effectiveness of the beveled trailing-edge
aileron can be nore than counteracted by using l a r g e r
a i l e r o n deflections than would be obtainable with t h o
unbalanced contour aileron with permissible s t i c k forces.
The final effectiveness o f the beveled trailing-edge
a i l e r o n would appear* however, t o be l e s s than t h a t o f
a p r o p e r l y balanced contow? aileron.
The comparison of the dra8 polars, w i t h the a i l e r o n
n e u t r a l , given i n figure 14, shows t h a t the s e c t i o n p r o f i l e

drag c o e f f i c i e n t cd i s lowest for the plain a i r f o i l

Omin
section, The contour aileron =onfiguration, sealed and yn-
sealed, rthows a s l i g h t l y h i g b r c than the plain a i r -
do
foil section. I n the sealed condition the contour a i l e r o n
shows the same p r o f i l e drag a s the p l a i n a i r f b i l section
outside the low-drag range, The beveled trailing-edge
a i l e r o n configuration shows an increase i n c throughout
d0
the test range, I n the low-drag ranGe the &eveled
trailing-edge aileron c o n f i p r a t i o n shows an increase
i n the p r o f l l e drag fdOmlJ of about 0.0003 O V ~ Tthe
 -6-
p l a i n airfoil s e c t i o n d r a g and possibly 0.0002 m o r the
contour a i l e Ton conf igurati on s e c t ion drag.

The s e c t i o n p r o f i l e - d r a g c o e f f i c i e n t o f the beveled

t r a i l i n g - e d g e a i l e r o n c o n f i g u r a t i o n was s l i g h t l y higher
than for t h e contour a i l e r o n c o n f i g u r a t i o n .
The section a i l e r o n e f f e c t i v e n e s s ger unit a i l e r o n
d e f l e c t l o n of the beveled t r a i l i n g - e d g e a i l e r o n unsealed
was approximately 80 percent of the e f f e c t i v e n e s s of t h e
. I
contour aileron, u s e aled,

Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory,

N a t i o n a l Advisory Coimdttee for Aeronautics,
Langley F f e l d , Va,, January 27, 1943..
 . ... . , . . . .. . .~
.~ ~ . . . .” -.-,

1. Zalovcik, John A.; A Profile-Drag Investigation i n

F l i g h t on an Experimental Fighter-” e Airplane = The
9
N o r t h American XP-51 (A. C. No. 41-3 ). NACA A.C.Ros
NOV. 1942.

2. Abbott, Iraa H a s van Doonhoff, Albert, E., and S t i v e r s ,

Louis S a , Jr,: Summary of A i r f o r l Data. NACA ACR
Nor L5C05, 194.5.
3. Khite, H. D e s and Hoover, Herbert H.: Flight Tests of
Modifications t o Improve the Aileron Control Charac-
t e r i s t i c s o f a North American XP-51 Airplane*
( A * C. No. 41-38). NACA June 2 0 , 1942.
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 TABLE I1
CHANGE I N EFFECTIVE ANGLE OF ATTACK PER UNIT CHANGE
OF AILERON ANSLE OF A SCALE MODEL O F ‘IRE INTER-
‘ ‘9 2 MEDIATE WIN^ SECTION OF r n xpU5i
~ AIRPLANE
J
(mraileron deflections, 8a, t18’; E, 13 x 106 approx,)

Aileron configuration ha
= .?
b ) C
. L

t
Beveled trailing-
edge 0.37 0.36

Contour type,
unsealed 044 .L4
I

Contour type,
sealed 048 .46
*

NATIONA 1 ADVISORY
COMMITlE€ FOR A€RONAUTICS
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