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I'm writing a thesis on airplanes' flaps and I was analizing the flaps on the Beech Bonanza V-35B: on the book "The wind and beyond - Volume II" published by NASA on page 375 states that this plane uses "single slotted flaps".

Citation from "The wind and beyond"

However looking closely at some pictures I think it uses single slotted fowler flap, since they seem to slide back towards the aft part of the wing.

enter image description here

In general I think that some books use the term "single slotted flap" to describe the "single slotted FOWLER flap", because the latter is far more used, but this creates some confusion. What kind of flap is this airplane exactly using? and can you provide me a decent reference (not wikipedia or something similar) in support?

Many thanks

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  • $\begingroup$ Feel free to roll back edit if you wish-- I was assuming your were (incorrectly) punctuating to denote plural, but I guess another view is that the attribute of "type" is something that is possessed by the flap-- $\endgroup$
    – quiet flyer
    Feb 1, 2023 at 16:10

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Yes, the single slotted flap on the Bonanza does have some Fowler type rearward motion. There is no strict convention on what defines a Fowler Flap.

Here is an article which discusses the question of Fowler flaps in light General Aviation aircraft. FLAP BIAS ... WHY? WHEN?

“As we were writing this page, we consulted a few friends. The well-known aviation writer Peter Bedell (a Baron owner) noted: "[Whether a light aircraft's flap is truly a Fowler or not] is a gray area...For example: The Baron's flaps do go aft and they do increase wing area as Fowler flaps do. This is done by a clever track/roller system in the wing and flaps themselves that guides them aft and then down as Fowlers should. I believe the Bonanza through King Air use the same system. I don't know how much aft travel there must be to define a "Fowler flap". I was led to believe that it was any flap that increases wing area.”

"Technically, the King Air's, Baron’s, Travel Air's, Bonanza’s, and Cessna 182/172’s flaps can be considered Fowlers…but the typical effect of the Fowler that design engineers of heavy airplanes try to achieve (that being: significant chord extension with added camber) is not being achieved in these light general aviation designs…and need not be.”

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the answer! On many of the books I checked the fowler flap is described as a device that both increase the camber of the airfoil and the wing area. For example, Anderson in "Aircraft performance and design" writes: "The Fowler flap, when deployed not only deflects downwards, hence increasing the effective camber, but also translates to the trailing edge of the airfoil, hence increasing the exposed wing area with a further increase in lift." So I think that increasing the wing area is a feature of the fowler flap (in all it's variants), otherwise it'd be a "simple" slotted flap. $\endgroup$
    – Lollo
    Feb 1, 2023 at 16:35

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