page_title: Aileron
section_title: Spades
hierarchical_section_title: Aileron / Aileron components / Spades
caption_attribution_description: Extra 300L during "Air Extreme" 29.08.2009 in Jesolo
context_page_description: An aileron is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll, which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.
  Considerable controversy exists over credit for the invention of the aileron. The Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss fought a years-long legal battle over the Wright patent of 1906, which described a method of wing-warping to achieve lateral control. The brothers prevailed in several court decisions which found that Curtiss's use of ailerons violated the Wright patent. Ultimately, the First World War compelled the U.S. Government to legislate a legal resolution. A much earlier aileron concept was patented in 1868 by British scientist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, based on his 1864 paper On Aërial Locomotion.
context_section_description: Spades are flat metal plates, usually attached to the aileron lower surface, ahead of the aileron hinge, by a lever arm. They reduce the force needed by the pilot to deflect the aileron and are often seen on aerobatic aircraft. As the aileron is deflected upward, the spade produces a downward aerodynamic force, which tends to rotate the whole assembly so as to further deflect the aileron upward. The size of the spade (and its lever arm) determines how much force the pilot needs to apply to deflect the aileron. A spade works in the same manner as a horn but is more efficient due to the longer moment arm.
caption: Extra 300L aircraft, from below, showing light coloured quadrilateral spades at roughly midwing.
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