Flaps (aircraft)

Flaps are a type of high-lift device used to increase the lift of an aircraft wing at a given airspeed. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to lower the minimum speed at which the aircraft can be safely flown, and to increase the angle of descent for landing. Flaps also cause an increase in drag, so they are retracted when not needed.

Extending the wing flaps increases the camber or curvature of the wing, raising the maximum lift coefficient or the upper limit to the lift a wing can generate. This allows the aircraft to generate the required lift at a lower speed, reducing the stalling speed of the aircraft, and therefore also the minimum speed at which the aircraft will safely maintain flight. The increase in camber also increases the wing drag, which can be beneficial during approach and landing, because it slows the aircraft. In some aircraft configurations, a useful side effect of flap deployment is a decrease in aircraft pitch angle, which lowers the nose thereby improving the pilot's view of the runway over the nose of the aircraft during landing. In other configurations, however, depending on the type of flap and the location of the wing, flaps can cause the nose to rise (pitch-up), obscuring the pilot's view of the runway.

There are many different designs of flaps used, with the specific choice depending on the size, speed and complexity of the aircraft on which they are to be used, as well as the era in which the aircraft was designed. Plain flaps, slotted flaps, and Fowler flaps are the most common. Krueger flaps are positioned on the leading edge of the wings and are used on many jet airliners.

The Fowler, Fairey-Youngman and Gouge types of flap increase the wing area in addition to changing the camber. The larger lifting surface reduces wing loading, hence further reducing the stalling speed.

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