rather than nosing down into a dive at too low an altitude to complete the recovery. lj2 In a canard, it is awkward to mount a vertical stabilizer far enough aft to produce adequate weathercock stability. However, if inherent stability is dispensed with in yaw as well as in pitch, the weathercock effect is no longer needed and the necessary control moment in yaw can be generated by a contjrol surface at the front.
SummaryAutomatic, as opposed to inherent, stability permits the center of gravity of an aircraft to be shifted aft, thus improving the vehicle's lift/drag ratio and maneuverability. However, the increased loading on the rear surface, if carried far enough to optimize the apportioning of load between front and rear, will make the rear surface prone to stall and can lead to pitching moments which may be difficult or impossible to control. This danger can be avoided by controlling the aircraft in pitch by varying the lift of the front surface rather than the rear surface, i.e., by using a canard layout. A pitching divergence can then be checked, or a stall recovery made by reducing the lift of the canard surface, which is always possible, rather than by increasing the lift of a tail surface, which may be impossible.