
In aviation, the maneuvering speed of an aircraft is an airspeed limitation at which the full deflection of the
controls can be made at without risking structural damage.
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
Advisory Circular 23-19A, ''Airframe Guide for Certification of Part 23 Airplanes'', Section 48 (p.27)
Retrieved 2012-01-06
The maneuvering speed of an aircraft is shown on a cockpit placard and in the aircraft's flight manual but is not commonly shown on the aircraft's
airspeed indicator
The airspeed indicator (ASI) or airspeed gauge is a flight instrument indicating the airspeed of an aircraft in kilometres per hour (km/h), knots (kn or kt), miles per hour (MPH) and/or metres per second (m/s). The recommendation by ICAO is to u ...
.
In the context of
air combat maneuvering
Air combat manoeuvring (ACM) is the tactic of moving, turning, and situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Commonly associated with dogfighting, air combat manoeuvres r ...
(ACM), the maneuvering speed is also known as corner speed or cornering speed.
Implications
It has been widely misunderstood that flight below maneuvering speed will provide total protection from
structural failure
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...
. In response to the destruction of
American Airlines Flight 587, a
CFR Final Rule was issued clarifying that "flying at or below the design maneuvering speed does not allow a pilot to make multiple large control inputs in one airplane axis or single full control inputs in more than one airplane axis at a time". Such actions "may result in structural failures at any speed, including below the maneuvering speed."
[Federal Aviation Administration]
14CFR §25.1583 Final Rule
Retrieved 2012-01-06
Design maneuvering speed VA
V
A is the design maneuvering speed and is a
calibrated airspeed
In aviation, calibrated airspeed (CAS) is indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and position error.
When flying at sea level under International Standard Atmosphere conditions (15 °C, 1013 hPa, 0% humidity) calibrated airspeed is the ...
. Maneuvering speed cannot be slower than
and need not be greater than V
c.
If
is chosen by the manufacturer to be exactly
the aircraft will stall in a nose-up pitching maneuver before the structure is subjected to its limiting aerodynamic load. However, if
is selected to be greater than
, the structure will be subjected to loads which exceed the limiting load unless the pilot checks the maneuver.
The maneuvering speed or maximum operating maneuvering speed depicted on a cockpit placard is calculated for the maximum weight of the aircraft. Some
Pilot's Operating Handbooks also present safe speeds for weights less than the maximum.
The formula used to calculate a safe speed for a lower weight is
, where V
A is maneuvering speed (at maximum weight), W
2 is actual weight, W
1 is maximum weight.
Maximum operating maneuvering speed VO
Some aircraft have a maximum operating maneuvering speed V
O. Note that this is a different concept than design maneuvering speed. The concept of maximum operating maneuvering speed was introduced to the US
type-certification standards for light aircraft in 1993.
[USA 14 CFR §23.1507]
Retrieved 2012-01-06 The maximum operating maneuvering speed is selected by the aircraft designer and cannot be more than
, where V
s is the
stalling speed of the aircraft, and ''n'' is the maximal allowed positive
load factor.
See also
*
V speeds
In aviation, V-speeds are standard terms used to define airspeeds important or useful to the operation of all aircraft. These speeds are derived from data obtained by aircraft designers and manufacturers during flight testing for aircraft typ ...
*
American Airlines Flight 587
References
External links
* "Design airspeeds"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maneuvering Speed
Airspeed
Aerodynamics