Thread: Air Malaysia missing.

A METAL object found washed up on Reunion Island thought to be from the missing plane MH370 has been confirmed as ?a domestic ladder? and is not a plane part, according to a senior official

Simplistically

Ailerons are on the outboard of the wings and each moves up and down, when the left moves up the right goes down to create roll,

Flaps are inboard and only move down to lower the stall speed for take off and landing, by in effect changing the angle of attack of the wing , more lift more drag,
Both Flaps move down in unison

Flaperon use the same control surface as the Flap but only one side moves down a small amount , in synch with the aileron , used for slow speed manoeuvring.

Originally Posted by goingbush

by in effect changing the angle of attack of the wing ,.

no, it changes the curvature and possible the chord of the wing whivh allows the pilot a greater angle of attack.

In addition to flaperons, there are also stabilators, elevons and ruddervators.

Any possibility the 777 part fell off something in flight? It does happen!

Did a plane crash?

Originally Posted by joel0407

Did a plane crash?

not sure yet.
possibly

Originally Posted by BigBlackDog

.......

Any possibility the 777 part fell off something in flight? It does happen!

I suppose it is possible - but very unlikely that the "in flight" would continue more than a few more minutes after such an event, as loss of this surface would result in one wing lifting more than the other, probably beyond the control capability of the remaining wing control surfaces. (So there would be loss of roll control, followed almost certainly by uncommanded manoeuvres which resulted in wing and control surface loading exceeding design figures and subsequent structural failure)

And such an event would have been headline news round the world, even if the aircraft survived. So it is a reasonable assumption that it has not been lost from another aircraft in flight.

John