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I guess there were a few machines that dared to be different with vertical-down stabilisers. The most stunning in my opinion was the Super Crusader...View attachment 373642
Yes but you must remember that the lower fins were connected to the landing gear system so that they rotated to horizontal to provide ground clearance as the gear went down.
Yes mate, I understand that and I'm not disputing what you said earlier about the undercart making life difficult for ventral stabiliser designers, I'm just thinking of aircraft that tried it.
XP-56 was another....
View attachment 373671
ground clearance for rotation and flare is zero
I thought the fins went down when the wings were lowered. The YF-12 had a system where the fins came down when the gear went up...Yes but you must remember that the lower fins were connected to the landing gear system so that they rotated to horizontal to provide ground clearance as the gear went down.
Look at the picture. You thought wrong. Wing is down and ventral fins are still flat. Phantom did it better with downward sloped horizontal? stabilators and an active stability augmentation system. This also fixed to a certain extent the pitch-up problem inherited from its predecessor, the Voodoo (though I did see one heart-stopping over-rotation that I thought was going to result in a crash and burn right in front of me).I thought the fins went down when the wings were lowered. The YF-12 had a system where the fins came down when the gear went up...