Do Jets with a "T-Tail" have problems in the slower flight realm?

Question

I have read the Reports on the Trident crash in the Late 50's along with several other reports of this type of aircraft design developing a high "sink rate" in certain flight modes. Is this still a problem with this type of design? Do the latest fly-by-wire computer controlled aircraft prevent this deadly,(from what I have read), almost unrecoverable situation? I also noted that these high sink rates occur almost always at altitude, and close the stall speed, although in some cases the aircraft was still climbing, before departing and entering a high sink rate, and crashing usally moments later. any comments welcome

Answer 1

They can super-stall, the horizontal tail surface gets into the turbulent wake of the main plane and can't get enough lift to pitch the nose down. It's a stable deep stall, you may get out with altitude and power, other than that you are SOL.

There were stal prevention systems before fly-by-wire, the Trident and, IIRC, the BAC 1-11 were fitted with stick shakers and stick pushers.

Answer 2

T-Tailed aircraft could have a problem at higher angles of attack when the wing blocks the airflow from reaching the tail properly. This could result in a loss of control. Fly by wire control systems can't prevent the problem but can be used to limit the airplane so that it can't get to that condition.

Answer 3

Apparently not since so many newer aircraft have a T-Tail. Some are low-wing some mid-wing and some shoulder-wing and they all seem to do fine even those that are not computer controlled. Putting the horizontal stabilizer up on top of the rudder serves to get it up and out of the turbulence coming off the wing especially when the airplane is dirty with gear down, flaps down and with a high angle of attack.

Answer 4

The C141 never had a problem, and it didn't have a stall warning system either, that I can remember.

Of course, we had pilots that didn't get the aircraft into situations where this might happen.

Answer 5

Commercial planes have both their middle and rear wings at the same level, unlike T-tail jets. As the rear 'wings' are mounted higher than the middle wings, they tend to create more lift, pushing the nose of the plane down.