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Question about angle of F-14 horizontal stabs


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Hi, I'm currently trying to attach the horizontal stabs on my F-14s and wanted to ask if they're really canted slightly?   In some blueprint front views they're depicted as horizontal but but angle downwards slightly on others.   Some photos seem to show a huge droop but could really be an optical illusion due to the shape of the stabs.  I waited for the stabs to move to a fairly flat position before taking a screenshot of this F-14 from the Final Countdown, and they do seem to droop slightly (?). I wanted to get some confirmation before gluing them on (actually I was going to make them movable but intended to put some alignment tabs to create the droop).  Thanks in advance!

 

ilkW7Qd.jpg

 

 

 

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My suggestion is to peruse through photos to find ones that give you the angle you want, and then perhaps get a protractor and measure the angle. To me it looks like a slight amount of anhedral, but I'm not 100% sure about that. The following link has over 2200 F-14 shots, there's bound to be something of use to you.

 

http://www.airfighters.com/photosearch.php?cra=978&sor=2&lim=5&dis=thumbs

 

This link has over 1900 photos:

http://www.airliners.net/search?aircraftManufacturer=18&keywords=F-14&photoCategory=9&sortBy=dateAccepted&sortOrder=desc&perPage=84&display=detail

 

Both sites are known for the quality of their photos, and IMO are well worth bookmarking.

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Hey CJ... Tomcat horizontal stabs have a slightly negative dihedral. Before my flying days in the Navy, I was an F-14 Plane Captain in VF-41. The model builder in me always picked up details. The one thing I took notice on my post start walk arounds while the jet sat powered up with hydrolics on, and flight controls in neutral positions (required for the safety of the Plane Captain) the stabs drooped down. This was observed by looking stab tip to stab tip and noticing the trailing edge of the stabs were not in a matching horizontal line.

 

Every Tomcat build I've done while in the Navy up till now we're based on my observations have had a slightly negative dihedral in the stabilators.

 

Tracy

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1 hour ago, Slartibartfast said:

Negative dihedral = anhedral.

 

Is that a double negative ? lol

 

I ran across the term polyhedral the other day.  Think F4U Corsair...

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