Comments by "Gort" (@gort8203) on "OURAGAN: France’s First Jet Fighter Was Designed In A Parisian Shed" video.

  1. At time 13:40 we are told that because the plane lacked any power assistance for the control surfaces the controls became very heavy at high speeds. (This is of course normal for unpowered controls). Then a minute later we are told the elevator was fitted with a system that made the stick progressively heavier as the speed increased. This doesn’t seem to make sense in light of the previous statement. Stick force gradient can become too light for reasons such as increasing AOA or aft CG, but unpowered controls getting lighter purely due to increasing airspeed doesn’t sound right. If the elevator stick forces were somehow so light at high speed that overcontrol was hard to avoid, then adding resistance would have made the airplane easier to control for max performance, not harder. The pilot would have an easier time determining how hard to pull without pulling too far. Unless the system was grossly dysfunctional it would not prevent the pilot from achieving max performance, or intentionally exceeding a limit just by pulling even harder. The point here is that if this system was actually necessary to prevent unintentional overstress that does not mean it would prevent intentional overstress by the pilot. I am familiar with servo tabs, spring tabs, and control tabs that reduce stick forces due to high airspeed, and with bobweights that increase stick force required as G increases, but not with a system that somehow adds resistance to unpowered flight controls based on airspeed. Can anyone explain how this worked?
    2