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Can Flap Deflection Help You Climb?

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The idea that flaps increase an aircraft's climb rate by providing "more lift" is generally fallacious; steady climb is achieved by engine power overcoming drag, not by excess lift.
  • While flaps significantly increase a wing's maximum lift coefficient for slower flight (e.g., landing), they also introduce drag, which typically *reduces* an aircraft's best rate of climb (Vy).
  • Flaps can, however, improve an aircraft's best *angle of climb* (Vx) by enabling slower flight at a steeper attitude, provided the increase in drag is not disproportionately high.
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“I always use flaps for climb. I get more lift that way.”

Some would call this statement perfectly logical, because flaps do increase lift and increased lift certainly ought to make an airplane climb faster. Others would say that the reasoning is fallacious, and that flaps, by increasing drag, reduce rate of climb rather than increase it.

FLYING Staff

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