Who wants to tell me what a balance panel is in a 707, or a 727?  :-/

LOU wrote on Jun 28^th, 2011 at 12:07am:

Who want to tell me what a balance panel is in a 707, or a 727?  :-/

Well, the balance panel (fitted on the 707 and 727 inboard ailerons) is a small surface hinged at the trailing edge of the inboard aileron's surfaces, which aerodynamically forced the deflection of the aileron the opposite way, thereby achieving a means of aerodynamic control, i.e. in case of hydraulic failure. If the balance panel moved up, the aileron went down, and vice-versa.

LOU, sincerely I didn't know the answer. I searched and found on Google. :)

SORRY!!! Not correct...  >:(

Pinatubo, what you are describing is a balance TAB, a cousin to the trim tab.

Try again!  :D

Lou

I'm not sure if we're allowed to ask questions, but is this a real name for a part of the plane or did pilots make this up as a joke/nickname?

Real name devised by Mr. Boeing and FAA

Hm. I still have no clue (I was really just hoping that that might help somebody else out.)  :D

So I'll make an educated guess... Is it something that shows the weights on each side of an airplane so that the flight crew can either rearrange baggage/passengers/fuel or correct for that and keep the plane level?

Any one else???

I give up. :(

Ditto.  ;)

Here is my guess. Another name for the Fuel System Panel.

Mark

OK, I see you give up...

The balance panel is a very cool invention that made it possible to fly big planes such as the 707 and the 727 with out boosted controls.
Now the 727 was normally boosted, but if the hydraulics were lost you were left with manual reversion. The 707 was always manual reversion!  ;D

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9784/balancek.jpg

As you moved the yoke in the cockpit a cable system would move the control or balance TAB on the trailing end of the aileron or elevator. This would cause the flight control to begin to move - high pressure under the tab, low pressure on the top of the tab, pushing the trailing edge of the aileron up in this case. So the aileron TAB moved DOWN, the air pressure would move the main aileron UP, but it was pretty heavy. Inside the wing, there was this monkey motion (aeronautical term  ;D) that would supply extra [AIR] power to help move the flight control. As the aileron, in this case moved UP, the deflection of the main control caused a pressure differential across the BALANCE panel pushing the panel and further moving the aileron - cool hun?

In the picture above, the aileron is being moved up causing a low pressure on the bottom of the aileron and a high pressure on the top. This pushes the balance panel in the direction to aid in the movement of the control.

Lou

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