A conventional airplane (i.e., one with a rear-mounted
stabilator or horizontal stabilizer and elevator arrangement instead of a front-mounted canard) leveling off after a climb will need some nose-down trim to allow the pilot to relax his or her control input and place the airplane in an attitude where it cruises without gaining or losing altitude.
To briefly restate what the article should have said concerning the AGPU and aircraft: Electrical power from the AGPU can move systems like the
stabilator and other electrically-driven systems.
The new method helps to ensure the availability of the flight-critical
stabilator amplifier used on Black Hawk helicopters, one of the workhorse aircraft of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Stabilator produces wet and dry mix systems consisting of boom and remotely controlled spraying units, mobile mixers with separate bins for cement and aggregate, each with its own feed screw to deliver the freshly made concrete.
Fixed slots were added to the
stabilator's forward portion, delaying onset of a
stabilator stall in the same fashion slotted flaps help the wing generate lift.
The airplane has an all-moving horizontal tail (a
stabilator with a push/pull cable) and to improve control feel, the stabilizer has an anti-servo tab attached to the tail with a composite membrane.
After we had a positive rate of climb, reached safe single-engine airspeed and verified that the
stabilator was programming, I began the Post Takeoff checklist.
Mechanics, when you're working on the Black Hawk tail rotor, put a cover on the
stabilator no matter how carefully you think you are gripping a tool.
2/10/2011 F-18E Left horizontal
stabilator impacted runway on landing.
At 50 knots, airspeed dissipated due to increased nose attitude, decreased power and increased parasitic drag caused by
stabilator programming to the near-full-down position.
The new horizontal stabilizer concept was called a unit horizontal tail or
stabilator. Among my generation of jet pilots, it was informally referred to as a flying tail.
