On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:24:39 -0700 (PDT), Tina wrote:

Thanks again. My intelligent but ignorant guess

????

is designing canards
so that they stall first should not take a genius, but there may be
traps I don't see. The world is safe, though, since I don't design
airplane.

The landing issue you raised is pretty neat, since most of us --
especially Mooney drivers -- are careful about airspeed on final and
in the flare, and like to land with the wings almost stalled. But in
the case of a canard if that stalls first I think the airplane would
very enthusiastically want to pitch forward hard enough to bend the
nosewheel!

Basically you want to set up your speeds so the main gear touches before
the canard stalls in a fully flying condition about 85/90 kts. This
gives a wide margin before the canard stalls and reduces the sensitivity
to Xwinds. Easier than a full-stall landing; all control surfaces are
fully functional plne is highly maneuverable all the way to the ground.

At least with the stabilizer still flying the nose might be able to be
put down more gently. You've provided some nice insights, thanks.

Thx. lol