# Leading & Trailing Edge Devices on Stall Speed



## Zipper730 (Mar 8, 2018)

Sounds more like a scientific paper, sure, but it's a valid question: I'm curious about certain aircraft in particular, provided it's not classified.

Namely, the following

F-104A: What was the F-104's stall speed with the flaps up and down, and how much did the BLC have on stall speed?
F8U-1/F-8A: How much of a reduction in stall speed did the leading-edge flaps, trailing-edge flaps, and flaperons have on stall speed? Did the variable incidence system have any significant effect, or merely lower the nose angle?
XF8U-3: How much of an affect did the leading/trailing edge flaps and flaperons have on stall speed with or without BLC? Also like before, did the variable incidence system have any effect or merely allow the nose to be angled up less?
F-4B: If I recall, the BLC changed the stall speed by 22 knots (both flap and slats): How much did the flap/slat have?


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## XBe02Drvr (Mar 16, 2018)

Zipper730 said:


> F-4B: If I recall, the BLC changed the stall speed by 22 knots (both flap and slats): How much did the flap/slat have?


IIRC, the flaps and slats and BLC were programmed to operate together. I don't think you could determine how much stall speed reduction would be attributable to each individually. Look it up in the NATOPS manual. You can buy it online.
Actual stall speed isn't of particular interest, as it's so variable due to conditions, and operationally nobody's going to go out and deliberately fly it into a full stall, like you would in a Cessna. It doesn't stall gently or gracefully. What really matters is Vref speed for coming aboard, which is as slow as as you can safely fly it with an adequate stall margin for the existing conditions. And carrier pilots aren't fixating on airspeed alone. The Angle of Attack indexer is mounted on the glareshield right in their line of sight when they're looking at the meatball on the carrier's mirror landing system. In newer jets, it occupies the same position in the HUD. Once "on the ball", they fly AOA.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Zipper730 (Mar 28, 2018)

XBE02Drvr,

That's legal to buy? Regardless I just bought 150 bucks worth of books and I'm gearing up for another 50... so that might have to weight (did I mention I like reading?)


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## XBe02Drvr (Mar 28, 2018)

Zipper730 said:


> That's legal to buy?


You can buy it on Amazon or eBay. In CD form it's not at all expensive. If you want an original bound volume, complete with dogeared pages, underlines and crib notes, it'll cost you. The F-4B version is a little bit rarer and more pricey, F-4J NATOPS is plentiful and cheap.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Zipper730 (Mar 29, 2018)

Deleted


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## Zipper730 (Apr 7, 2018)

XBe02Drvr said:


> You can buy it on Amazon or eBay. In CD form it's not at all expensive. If you want an original bound volume, complete with dogeared pages, underlines and crib notes, it'll cost you.



Is this what you're looking for?

If so, from what I get here, 164 is stall speed flaps up at 36000 pounds, 132 with the flaps halfway down and gear down, and stall speed with flaps and gear full down is 124 knots. It seems there's about a 40 knot spread between flaps fully up and fully down.

Looking up maneuver performance listed near the end, it seems the maximum limit seems to produce speeds ranging from 400-440 knots at the corner velocity for around 37,500 pounds.


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