Quote:
Originally Posted by meritflyer  When an aircraft turns, where exactly is the HCL force being exerted from? |
It's being exerted exactly from all over the wing.
There is no one source of lift; lift is the total of the pressure differences existing all over the top and bottom surfaces. It's similar to saying "where is the weight of the aircraft?" Well, it's everywhere.
However,
for many purposes, we can use the CG as being representative of weight. In the same way, we can pretend that lift acts at one point. That point is usually the
aerodynamic center of the wing, and is located pretty close to the 1/4 chord point. This is not the same as the center of pressure. You can pretend that lift is located at the center of pressure, too, but the center of pressure moves about with the angle of attack, so it's a pretty inconvenient location.