What is Vfe for the aircraft?

• A. 110
• B. 95
• C. 120
• D. 103

Answer: (D)

Vfe is the maximum speed at which the aircraft is safe to fly with the flaps extended. It’s a published limit that protects the flaps and wing from excessive loads when the flap setting is in use, typically during approach and landing.

For this airplane, the published Vfe with full flaps extended is 103 knots. That means you should not exceed 103 knots when the flaps are down. The other numbers either exceed this limit or don’t represent the flap-extended configuration, so they aren’t the Vfe. In practice, you fly below Vfe with flaps out, using other speeds (like approach speeds) as you configure for landing, and you only accelerate beyond Vfe once you’ve retracted flaps to a clean configuration.