Buffeting v. Flutter

One day last summer a Junkers monoplane, carrying a party of British socialites home from a house party in France, was seen by villagers of Kent to "break up" in the air: wings and tail dropped off. All six occupants were killed (TIME, July 28). Last week the New York Herald Tribune reported from London the Air Ministry's finding, a newly discovered cause of crashes: "buffeting" of the tail unit, as opposed to "flutter."

"Flutter" is the name given to a rapid, rippling vibration which most commonly affects the unsupported wing of a monoplane, sometimes causing it to tear apart, but which at high speeds may affect the tail. Working with a model of the crashed plane, the investigators found it could not have flown fast enough to produce tail-flutter. But at slow speeds, they discovered, the plane's low wing could set up wicked eddying currents which wrenched the tail up and down, destroying all control. This they called "buffeting," and concluded it had sent the Junkers into its fatal dive.

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