"Snowbird" wrote in message
...
the BAe 146 (or Avro RJ) which has a different arrangement. It has a
speedbrake in the tailcone, which is often deployed on short final. On top of
the wings are spoilers,

Getting back to the original side question: In my book, (I am a glider guy)
speedbrakes are any surface that deploys specifically to add drag. The
tailcone-mounted speedbrakes mentioned above are a great example. Spoilers are
a speedbrake installed on the wing that add drag and at the same time reduce
lift.

Just to confuse the issue, would it be OK to refer to flaps as speedbrakes?
I can point out some plain flaps on gliders that deploy to 90 degrees (or nearly
so) and produce some awesomely steep final approaches.

Vaughn