[falconvalley]

Originally Posted by tgrayson

Actually, you want the CG ahead of the CP (or aerodynamic center, really) for stability. As an aircraft goes through the transonic range, the aerodynamic center moves rearward, increasing stability, which tends to pitch the airplane down. It's indeed helpful for the CG to move back in order to reduce the stability. A very authoritative tailplane could alleviate this, but you'd have a lot of trim drag.

Is that why some jets have a tendancy to nose over?