Spoilers for roll control of light airplanes

The paper presents an overview of the state-of-the-art of roll control spoilers for light airplanes. Reasons for using spoilers on light airplanes are presented. Several classical objections to the use of spoilers of such airplanes are critically examined. It is shown that mechanically driven spoiler systems can be designed. Flight test results of a new mechanically driven spoiler on the Redhawk airplane are discussed. Tunnel data of spoilers on the new general aviation airfoil GA(W)-1 are presented. Finally, a bibliography on spoiler data is included.