Flight Measurements of the Horizontal-tail Loads on a Swept-wing Fighter Airplane at Transonic Speeds

Memorandum presenting flight tests on a swept-wing fighter airplane at a range of Mach numbers, which indicate the critical flight regions for balancing, maneuvering, and buffeting horizontal-tail loads. The critical balancing tail loads were found to occur at the highest test Mach number of about 1.03 at the highest airplane load factor. Results regarding balancing tail loads, maneuvering tail loads in elevator-pulse maneuvers, maneuvering tail loads in pitch-up maneuvers, buffet tail loads, and tail-load distributions are provided.