Westwind Wing Location

[John_Mitchell]

I work at an FBO in New Orleans and see a lot of Westwinds come in. One peculiar thing I notice about them (besides it looking like they drag the ground) is the location of the wings in respect to the fore/aft portion of the fuselage. The wings are sooooo far back, it looks like the plane would want to always "nose down" in flight....how does this work?

 

[tgrayson]

IThe wings are sooooo far back, it looks like the plane would want to always "nose down" in flight....how does this work?

Most airplanes want to nose down in flight, that's why there's a horizontal stabilizer. Normally, the horizontal stabilizer pushes down, which keeps the "nose up".

 

[meritflyer]

Most stabs are also mounted with a negative angle of incidence to create a "tail down force" in flight which keeps the nose up and contributes to longitudinal stability.

 

[seagull]

I think what he is wondering is why that airplane looks different. I don't know the specifics for it, but wing location would be affected by many things. In this case, a lot of it is just due to the aft mounted engines. I think the mid-wing design also makes it appear more aft than it is, relative to other biz jets.

 

[tgrayson]

I think what he is wondering is why that airplane looks different. I don't know the specifics for it, but wing location would be affected by many things. In this case, a lot of it is just due to the aft mounted engines. I think the mid-wing design also makes it appear more aft than it is, relative to other biz jets.

Mid-wings are hard to design, because you don't want a spar going through a cabin. I think the mid-wing design incorporates something like a ring that encircles the cabin, making it hard to install windows. That may be the reason that the wing is far back on this aircraft.

I agree that this placement might make the aircraft excessively stable, requiring a large amount of tail down force, which equals drag, or a limited CG range. However, fuselages tend to be destabilizing, and it may be that neutral point of the aircraft might be ahead of the wing, in spite of the wing position.

 

[meritflyer]

Boo Yah!