Automatic flaps
Automatic flaps are a feature of aircraft, which allows them to control flap angle on their own within certain limits. This feature was added during update "Alpha Strike".
At a minimum, this feature can prevent the pilot from destroying their own flaps and/or help increase the plane turn rate without thinking about it too much. At a maximum (mostly seen past Rank VI), it allows to strategically designate flaps position beforehand and with that enable new moves (which would be impossible otherwise), or smooth over those that would feel clunky otherwise.
Contents
Protective mechanism
At the lowest level, automatic flap protection prevents the user from deploying flaps when all it can achieve is self-destruction and will automatically disable them when critical speed threshold is crossed. While very prohibitive and sometimes overly sensitive, it will prevent pilots from obliterating their own plane on accident and may even trivialize takeoff procedure for fast planes such as the Lightning F.6.
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Flaps protection does not care that someone might need flaps again in a few seconds and it does not send messages about turning them off. Pay attention! |
Pilot must use flaps again manually to deploy them again, and if it's impossible, a prompt will say that they are "blocked" and specify why.
Takeoff flaps are not blocked as plane is currently slow
Mechanism blocks pilot from using the flaps due to high speed
Automatic flaps
Automatic flaps will adjust themselves to maximize aircraft agility while remaining outside of self-destruct zone. Certain planes inherently use flaps as a part of their movement set and take control away from the pilot entirely (like some rank VIII planes will say "no flaps" despite clearly having them).
Otherwise, with automatic flaps pilot can input desired flap angle (be it combat, landing or takeoff) and the plane will try its best to use the closest possible angle, trusting that the pilot knows what they are doing. For each situation, payload and plane, a different flaps position may be required and it's still a job of the pilot to figure out what they need.
As an extreme example, a VTOL jet such as Harrier GR.3 requires at least takeoff flaps to employ VTOL (as otherwise it may crash due to lack of lift, especially when loaded with bombs), and to fully stop midair it needs landing flaps. It would be an insurmountable task to manually slow down the plane and determine perfect moment to use certain angles of flaps, all while controlling the engine thrust angle and looking for opponents. Automatic flaps allow Harrier pilots to "request" landing flaps position beforehand, so they can focus on task at hand and naturally enter and leave hover state as they slow down to strike or speed up to leave.
"Landing" flaps position issued, but not used due to speed
"Landing" is in full effect due to a matching speed
"Takeoff" is in effect instead due to "landing" destabilizing the plane otherwise
While this may not seem like much to an unaware pilot, the difference in movement is making this feature almost integral for certain aircraft (at least when they are used for their intended purpose).
List of planes that have this feature
Be aware that this list is compiled from Patch Notes and it might not be the complete information as of the time of writing and/or reading.
For the sake of simplicity, some plane links currently refer to their entire family (may have a different name in your nation)
| Planes with smart flaps | ||
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft Name | Rank | Capability level |
| F8F-1 | III | ??? |
| F8F-1B | IV | ??? |
| ▄F8F-1B | IV | ??? |
| P-51H-5-NA | IV | ??? |
| F-14A Early | VIII | ??? |
| F-14B | VIII | ??? |
| F8F-1 | III | ??? |
| F-5E | VII | ??? |
| ␗F-5E | VII | ??? |
| ▄F-5E FCU | VII | Automatic flaps |
| F-16 | VIII | ??? |
| F-4 Phantom II | VII - VIII | Automatic flaps |
| Harrier/AV-8 | VI - VIII | Automatic flaps |
| F-105D | VII | ??? |
| A-4 | VI | Automatic flaps |
| A-10A | VI | Automatic flaps |
| A-10A Late | VII | ??? |
| Mirage F1C | VII | ??? |
| Mirage F1C-200 | VII | Automatic flaps |
| Lightning F.6 | VI | Protective mechanism |
| Lightning F.53 | VI | Protective mechanism |
| F-84F IAF | VI | ??? |
| ◄F-84F | VI | ??? |
| ▄F-84F | VI | ??? |
| ▄F-84F | VI | ??? |
| F-84F | VI | Automatic flaps |
| F-84F | V | ??? |
| MiG-21/J7 | VI - VII | Automatic flaps |
| MiG-23 | VI - VII | Protective mechanism |
| MiG-27K | VII | ??? |
| MiG-27M | VII | ??? |
| MiG-29 | VIII | ??? |
| Typhoon | II-III | Protective mechanism |
| F4F/Martlet | II | Automatic flaps |
| F6F Hellcat | II - IV | ??? |
| F4U/F2G-1/AU-1 | II - IV | Automatic flaps |
| N1K2-J | IV | ??? |
| N1K2-Ja | IV | ??? |
| J7W1 | IV | ??? |
| A7M2 | IV | ??? |
| A7M1 (NK9H) | IV | Automatic flaps |
| J6K1 | IV | Automatic flaps |
| AD-2/AD-4/A-1H | IV | Automatic flaps |
