Sabre slatted wing question

There was very slight step.  I've seen it for myself on the Canadair Sabre 6 in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.  There's also plenty of photographic evidence in Larry Milberry's bible on the Canadair Sabre.

Theuns,

Well, it sort of depends.  The info I've heard "second-hand" (and don't ask where I read this as my memory is shot) is that there is a slight step when you press the slat in on the ground.   This is because the leading slat has a tendency to pop out in slow or no speed.  At speed, however, the slat was pressed in by air flow and it was pretty flat.

That's the story anyway.  May be BS, may be not.

At least you can claim you heard it from a "reliable source". 

Gary

Gary:

You're right.  In the air, there was no step.  The slat was flush with the wing.  The step is only visible when the slat is dropped. I am by no means an expert but I've done a lot of research on Sabres.  My uncle was killed while flying one in France in 1953 and while researching his crash, I have made friends with many people who knew him and flew Sabres with him.  They have been a great source of information.

Cool thanx guys. I think that in 1/72 scale the step would be almost non-exisatant - not the almost .5mm thick step of the lit! That would relate to about a 35mm high step on full size!

Maybe the step was just high enough to make the transition of the wing to the slat smoot for high speed laminar flow over the wing, a few mm's at most I recon.

Anyway I filled and sanded the area and will have to stick with that.

Here is the same F-86 kit with an unfilled area, I think you might agree it is way to "much"

Theuns

Theuns,

Well, there does seem to be something "odd" looking about the F-86 wing.

This has convinced me that anytime I get around to doing an F-86 (and I have a couple in the stash) I'm just going to mount it "in flight" and not worry about the slats!

Gary

I think the slats down make it look more "real" :-)

To fill and sand did not take more than about 40 min total, so for me it was worth while.

Theuns

I agree with you Theuns, the slat wells are far too deep at the back end as molded.

I am using the same batch of kits for Fury wings that need the slats, one reason for modeling them on the ground and open is that for some versions, the slats are the largest visual difference between Sabre or Fury versions. (the 6-3 part is more subtle)