Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote:
As I understand it, the force of the tail plane's elevators typically
moves the center of lift forward and backward along the airplane's
axis as the elevators are moved up and down (as well as changing the
lift magnitude a little - though that is secondary). One presumably
enters stable flight when the center of lift is moved to coincide
with the center of gravity.


That's exactly the case if you include the stab in the CL equation. If
you're just referring to it on the wing itself, providing the AoA and
speed remain the same it doesn;t shift. It's a matter of definition.

Just checked one of my references[*] for proper terminology - where I used
"center of lift" it uses the phrase "total lift" with the symbol L. For the
lift of the main wings it uses Lw and for the lift of the tail it uses Lt.
[*] "Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics" by Barnes W.
McCormick.