The position of the leading edge slats on an airliner (Airbus A300). In this picture, the slats are drooped, note also the extended trailing edge flaps.

Slats on the leading edge of an Airbus A318 of Air France.

The wing of a landing bmi Airbus A319-100. The slats at the leading edge and the flaps at the trailing edge are extended.

The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch had permanently extended slots on its leading edges (fixed slats).

Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wings of fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a product of angle of attack and speed, so by deploying slats an aircraft can fly more slowly or take off and land in a shorter distance. They are usually used while landing or performing maneuvers which take the aircraft close to the stall, but are usually retracted in normal flight to minimize drag.

[edit] Types

Types include:

• Automatic - the slat lies flush with the wing leading edge until reduced aerodynamic forces allow it to extend by way of springs when needed. This type is typically used on light aircraft.
• Fixed - the slat is permanently extended. This is sometimes used, especially on specialist low-speed aircraft (these are referred to as slots).
• Powered - the slat extension can be controlled by the pilot. This is commonly used on airliners.

[edit] Operation

The chord of the slat is typically only a few percent of the wing chord. The slats may extend over the outer third of the wing, or they may cover the entire leading edge. Many early aerodynamicists, including Ludwig Prandtl believed that slats work by inducing a high energy stream to the flow of the main airfoil thus re-energizing its boundary layer and delaying stall^[1]. In reality, the slat does not give the air in the slot high velocity (it actually reduces its velocity) and also it cannot be called high-energy air since all the air outside the actual boundary layers has the same total head. The actual effects of the slat are ^[2][3]:

• The slat effect: The velocities at the leading edge of the downstream element (main airfoil) are reduced due to the circulation of the upstream element (slat) thus reducing the pressure peaks of the downstream element.
• The circulation effect: The circulation of the downstream element increases the circulation of the upstream element thus improving its aerodynamic performance.
• The dumping effect: The discharge velocity at the trailing edge of the slat is increased due to the circulation of the main airfoil thus alleviating separation problems or increasing lift.
• Off the surface pressure recovery: The deceleration of the slat wake occurs in an efficient manner, out of contact with a wall.
• Fresh boundary layer effect: Each new element starts out with a fresh boundary layer at its leading edge. Thin boundary layers can withstand stronger adverse gradients than thick ones.

The slat has a counterpart found in the wings of some birds, the alula – a feather or group of feathers which the bird can extend under control of its "thumb".

[edit] History

Slats were first developed by Gustav Lachmann in 1918. A crash in August 1917, with a Rumpler C aeroplane on account of stalling caused the idea to be put in a concrete form, and a small wooden model was built in 1917 in Cologne. In 1918, Lachmann presented a patent for leading edge slats in Germany. However, the German patent office at first rejected it as the office did not believe in the possibility of increasing lift by dividing the wing.^[4][5].

Independently of Lachmann, Handley-Page Ltd in Great Britain also developed the slotted wing as a way to postpone stall by reducing the turbulence over the wing at high angles of attack, and applied for a patent in 1919; to avoid a patent challenge, they reached an ownership agreement with Lachmann. That year a De Havilland D.H.9 was fitted with slats and flown. Several years later, having subsequently taken employment at the Handley-Page aircraft company, Lachmann was responsible for a number of aircraft designs, including the Handley Page Hampden.

Licensing the design became one of the company's major sources of income in the 1920s. The original designs were in the form of a fixed slot in the front of the wing, a design that was found on a number of STOL aircraft.

During World War II German aircraft commonly fitted a more advanced version that pushed back flush against the wing by air pressure to reduce drag, popping out when the airflow decreased during slower flight. Notable slats of that time belonged to the German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. These were similar in design to retractable slats, but were fixed non-retractable slots. The slotted wing allowed this aircraft to take off into a light wind in less than 45 m (150 ft), and land in 18 m (60 ft). Aircraft designed by the Messerschmitt company employed leading-edge slats as a general rule.

In the post-war era slats have generally been hydraulically or electrically operated.

Slats are one of several high-lift devices used on airliners, such as flap systems running along the trailing edge of the wing.

[edit] See also

• Aviation
• Flaps (aircraft)
• Flight
• Flight control surfaces
• Slots
• Krueger flaps

[edit] References