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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
A modification sometimes used to increase the effectiveness of a control surface is thickening of the trailing-edge by attaching small spanwise strips, normal to the upper and lower surface of the control, along the trailing-edge (see Fig. 1). While the effect of such a modification is fairly well known for steady flow, little evidence is available of the effect in unsteady flow. There are no theoretical methods of predicting the unsteady aerodynamic forces acting on an oscillating control surface which has trailing-edge strips (T-strips) attached and so flutter calculations are based on classical thin-liftingsurface theories. This practice is very dubious and two instances where flutter has occurred but has not been predicted by use of the classical unsteady aerodynamic forces, are described in Refs. 2 and 3.