Thurston Wing-Tip Rotors Control Beyond the Stall

Summary and DeductionsThe accompanying Report No. B.A. 1083 of the Royal Aircraft Establishment demonstrates generally that a moving body or rider plane can be associated with a fixed body or plane for altering the aerodynamic properties of the combination for various useful purposes, and in particular, that rotating cambered rider planes, when associated with the front edge of a fixed wing of standard section (see Fig. 11) “are definitely advantageous” in improving the gliding conditions, and that “by increasing the size of the rotors relatively to the size of the wings, this superiority is increased.”Previous experiments at the N.P.L. with various types of wings fitted alternately—with optimum wing-tip slots and with rotors—have shown that rotors can give about the same degree of lateral stability as tip slots, but over a much wider angular range. Other experiments with better rotors than used at the N.P.L. have shown that a more powerful stabilising effect over a wider annular range is to be obtained with rotors than with slots.