Get a Glimpse of the Flight Controls and their Operations
An aircraft flight control system is categorized into primary and secondary control systems based on the criticality of their operations. The primary control system includes the ailerons, elevator (or stabilator), and the rudder. These are critical to controlling an aircraft for a safe flight. How critical are they? Ailerons control the movement, which is called “roll” all along the longitudinal axis of an aircraft and are fixed onto the outboard edge of each wing. These start moving in opposite directions to each other when the autopilot is set, or manual control is made. Large aircraft are fitted with two ailerons on each wing. Both ailerons are activated during slow speed, but for high speed, the outboard aileron is locked, and the inboard aileron becomes operational. Elevators control flight movement called the “pitch” on the lateral axis of an aircraft. Mostly, two elevators are mounted on the trailing edge of both halves of the horizontal stabilizer. During autopi