Dihedral and Washout for Flight Stability

The following looks at Dihedral and Washout design concepts on the most basic level, and the functional reasons they are incorporated into the construction of aircraft wings. Dihedral angle is the upward angle from horizontal of the wings or tailplane on a fixed wing aircraft. Dihedral generates a stabilizing roll torque due to the difference in angle-of-attack experienced by the left and right wings during a sideslip. A sideslip is when the aircraft is not...