Control surfaces with control surfaces

[steuben]

Yo dawg, I heard you like control surfaces. So I put some control surfaces on your control surfaces so you can.... yeah I got nothin'.

So here's the question. If I attach a control surface, say an Elevon 1, to the trailing edge of an Elevon 1, do I get more control force than if I put two side by side?

edit: and having just tried it the stacked surfaces don't follow the trailing edges of the previous surface.

Edited May 2, 2017 by steuben

[Dafni]

If you could attach parts to control surfaces nobody would ask for stock hinges anymore

 

no seriously, I dont think you can attach things to control surfaces. or if you could, most probably the movement would not translate to the additional part.

[bewing]

The only control surface part that can be surface attached is a FAT55 tailfin. And you can only attach to the non-moving part of it.

 

[Blaarkies]

I don't think you can attach things to any moving part even. Cargo bays, landing gear/wheels, gimbaling engines, service bays, rover wheels, antennae, extending solar panels, shielded solar panels' casing, (did i miss one?...well, kinda klaw) are all tried and tested by people living on the hinge of life...we would know if it worked.

[AeroGav]

You can attach elevons to elevons and canards/tailfins to each other, and they move in unison , but the deflection angles don't stack.

So, say you attach an elevon with a 20 degree max deflection to the fuselage, then attach another (20 deg. max deflection elevon) to the first elevon.       When you pull back on the stick, both deflect up to 20 degrees.    You don't get one deflecting 20 degrees and the next one going to 20 + 20 = 40 degrees of deflection.

That's a good thing actually as the second elevon would be stalled should its angle relative to airflow exceed 30 degrees, making it useless as a control surface and having it act more like an airbrake.

I often attach elevons and canards to each other to make larger control surfaces than the game provides.

Three tail fins and an advanced canard -

Four pairs of Big S elevons -

 

 

[Reusables]

Any moving parts won't propagate its movement to it's child part. So no more control authority.

Though, you can surface-attach something(including elevons) to Big-S elevons and FAT-445 elevon. It is just for aesthetics, I think.

[steuben]

I managed to tack an elevon 1 to the trailing edge of a FAT455 ACS, visually, and the .craft

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seems to indicate that it is attached... somehow. But, when the fat surface moves the elevon stays put.

[AeroGav]

49 minutes ago, Abastro said:

Any moving parts won't propagate its movement to it's child part. So no more control authority.

Though, you can surface-attach something(including elevons) to Big-S elevons and FAT-445 elevon. It is just for aesthetics, I think.

You will get more authority because of the increased control surface area.    But the deflection angles don't change beyond normal max.

Like I say, you wouldn't want them to,  max lift occurs at 30 degrees of deflection and the craft itself probably has some AoA to begin with.

Go beyond max lift and you get less response in the direction you're pulling , not more.

All you acheive is drag, and in the case of roll control, the asymmetric drag results in the airplane yawing away from the direction you're trying to turn it in.

 

[Reusables]

5 hours ago, AeroGav said:

You will get more authority because of the increased control surface area.    But the deflection angles don't change beyond normal max.

What I wanted to say..