One of the characteristics of the Soviet MiG-15 fighter was its wing fences, designed to minimize airflow running down the wingspan and off the wingtips, which reduces the effectiveness of the control surfaces. In fact, Soviet designers became very fond of wing fences, and used them on a large number of aircraft designs. To such an extent thay some Western observers claimed they did so to prevent the airflow from “defecting” over the ends of the wings.
On this picture, the inboard wing fence is clearly visible, but the outboard one is harder to see. You might also notice that on this specific MiG-15, the airflow did defect to the West, along with its aircraft and North Korean pilot.
No comments:
Post a Comment