Knife flight

The knife flight is an aerobatic maneuver in which the aircraft flies in a permanent 90 ° lateral position.

Since the wings cannot contribute to the generation of lift in this flight condition , the necessary lift must be generated with the fuselage (more precisely: the area of ​​the projection of its side view). The rudder determines the angle of attack of the fuselage and is held firmly on the side that is necessary to align the center axis of the aircraft relatively upwards (in normal flight as "pushing") attitude (for example, in a knife flight with 90 ° left inclination rudder to right ). Since the shape of the fuselage is not normally designed to generate lift, this figure cannot be flown satisfactorily with all types of aircraft. By shifting the reference plane by 90 °, the elevator takes over the function of direction control, and the ailerons ensure that the lateral position is maintained. The vector of the propulsive force (propeller pull, thrust jet), which points slightly upwards due to the inclination of the hull, also creates a component that generates lift.

Due to the special teardrop shape of the hull and the generously dimensioned drive, z. B. the Pitts Special performs well.

Web links

• Video: Knife flight with aerobatic model (YouTube, from 00:10)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geza Szurovy, Mike Goulian: Basic Aerobatics . McGraw Hill Professional, 1994, ISBN 978-0-07-062926-4 ( google.com [accessed August 9, 2016]).