You’re right, slats. The functionality is the same though in regards to their use in managing the relaxed stability.
This is true, it is older. I was just explaining the various trim devices used by aircraft with relaxed stability and how the F-15’s movable intake would fit in.
The Mirage 2000’s leading edge slats are actually the most modern iteration of such a mechanism… they can deploy differentially and there are two sets on the wing. They create a dogtooth / vortex generator when deployed. You’ll see footage of the Mirage, when they deploy the nose pitches without input from the trailing edge control surfaces. This is the result of the relaxed stability being augmented and the slats being used as trim devices. Simple and clever way to make a pure delta safe to fly with borderline negative stability.
Likewise, the Su-57 is fully unstable and the margin of instability is higher than any other airframe to date produced by Russia it seems. This is possible because the new design features (LEVCONS) make it possible to augment the stability level and recover from stalls in spite of the tailed configuration. This benefits energy maneuverability as well as high alpha flight without any drawbacks seen on canards or aircraft with leading edge root extensions alone.
Unstable aircraft with elevators instead of canards become MORE unstable at high alpha flight and deep stall because the deflection of the elevator and subsequent loss of lift from the rear moves the overall center of lift too far forward - resulting in pitch-out departures. Levcons prevent this by redirecting airflow and removing a forward source of positive lift at will.
