Aero – 302

INTRODUCTION TO STABILITY (Lecture #

24)

TEXT BOOK : CHAPTER 7

SECTION 7.1,7.2

Number of Slides: - 24

1
 STABILITY
Imagine that you have designed your own airplane following the principles laid out in the
previous chapters of this book, and you are confident that your airplane will fly as fast, as
high, as far, and as long as you have planned and you are ready to fly it for the first time.
With confidence, you take off and begin the first flight of your new design. Within
moments after takeoff, you hit a gust of wind that momentarily pitches the airplane up,
literally rotating the airplane to a higher-than-intended angle of attack. Now what? Are you
going to have to fight to bring your airplane under control, or will it automatically return to
its previous orientation after a few moments? Have you properly designed your airplane
so that it will return to its original orientation? How do you do that? That is, how do you
ensure that your airplane, when disturbed by a gust of wind, will not continue to pitch up
and completely go out of control? These are truly important questions, and you will find
answers to these questions in this last portion of the course. These questions and
answers have to do with airplane stability

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 CONTROLABILITY
Assume that your airplane is stable; that is, it will automatically return to its
original orientation after experiencing some type of disturbance. As you are
flying, you wish to speed up but also maintain level flight. You must
correspondingly reduce the angle of attack. This can be accomplished by
changing the elevator deflection on the tail. But how much do you need to
deflect the elevator? And how much force must you exert on the elevator to
get it to deflect the proper amount? If you do not know the proper answers
and you did not properly account for them in your design, most likely you will
not be able to control your airplane.
The second major subject of this part of the course is airplane control,
where you will find answers to these questions.
If airplanes are unstable or uncontrollable, they will most likely crash.

3
Review of Atmosphere

Steady winds jet stream

Weather, Turbulence, Gust-Wind Shear

Airplane performance, is governed by Pitching about
forces along and perpendicular to the the y axis is called
flight path. In contrast, airplane stability longitudinal
and control, are governed by motion
moments about the center of gravity,
with the rotational motion of the airplane
as a response to these moments.
Moments and rotational motion are the
main focus for stability and control

Rolling
about the x
axis is Yawing about
called the z axis is
lateral called
motion directional
motion

5
 Coordinate Systems for Aircraft

To describe motion of an airplane, we must define a suitable coordinate

system for formulation of equations of motion. Most common coordinate
systems are
• Earth fixed or inertial coordinate system
– North – East - Down
• Airplane fixed (fixed to cg) or Body axes system
– Nose - Right Wing - Down
 Forces on the Aircraft
• Aerodynamics Forces

• Propulsive Force (Thrust)

Tx T y T z
• Gravitational Force (Weight)
Wx Wy Wz
 Moments on an Aircraft
• Aerodynamics Moments

• Rotational rate (Angular Velocities)

p (about x-axis)
q (about y-axis)
r (about z-axis)
 Forces, Moments & Velocities in Body Axes
• Body Axis Coordinate System

Note: Figure & table are

extracted from Text Book

Sign Convention:

M is +ve : Nose up moment

L is +ve : Right wing going down
N is +ve : Nose moving to Rt Side
 Angle of Attack and Side Slip Angle
• All the aerodynamic coefficients are functions
of Mach Number (V/a = V/(RT), Reynolds
number ( Vl/), angle of attack ‘’ and sideslip
angle ‘’
• Angle of attack is defined as
–  = tan-1 w/u
• Sideslip angle is defined as
–  = sin-1 v/V Where V= (u2+v2+w2)
• If , < 150, then
 = w/u  = v/V = v/u

Sign Convention:
a is +ve : Wind coming from Bottom
Note: Figure & expressions b is +ve : Wind coming from Right
are extracted from Text Book
 Force Centers on Airfoil
• Center of Pressure:
A point where the total sum of
pressure field acts on a body or a
point at which aerodynamic force
would not generate any moment on
airfoil.

• Aerodynamic Center:
A point at which pitching moment is
independent of Angle of Attack

• Center of Gravity:
A point at which weight of the
body is evenly dispersed or point
at which weight of the body acts
Airfoils Characteristics
 Stability & Control
• We need to study
– What makes an airplane stable (major focus on longitudinal)
– How to design control systems
– What conditions are required for good A/C handling
• Equilibrium (or trim)
– Resultant forces F=0
– Resultant moments about cg M=0
– If F0  linear accelerations
– If M0  rotational accelerations

13
 Component Responsible for Stability
Vertical Tail

Horizontal Wing
Tail

Engine / Propeller
Fuselage

,
,
,
,

Aircraft Stability & Control : Spring 2020

Component Responsible for Control

Aircraft Stability & Control : Spring 2020

 Stability & Control
 An aircraft in uniform motion is in equilibrium

 The aircraft equilibrium is disturbed through the use of

aerodynamic moments applied around one or a combination
of the three axes

 The tendency of the aircraft to return to its equilibrium state

when slightly disturbed, is called ‘stability’

When these moments are generated using the control

surfaces, the aircraft is said to be ‘controlled’


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 Stability & Control
 Stability refers to how an aircraft responds to changes in angle of attack
(pitch), slip (yaw) or bank (roll)

 Control refers to the ability to initiate and sustain changes in angle of

attack, slip or bank.

 An aircraft without sufficient stability will be difficult, possibly even

dangerous to fly

 On the other hand if the aircraft is too stable it may be difficult to control

17
18
 Static Stability 19

Initial tendency of an aircraft

to return to its original
position when it's disturbed.
Disturbance must lead to
restoring force or moment
which tend to bring back the
aircraft to its equilibrium
flight condition
Stable – Returns to Equilibrium
Position
Unstable – moves further away
from equilibrium position
Neutrally stable - stays at the
disturbed position
 Stability & Control 20

 Static Stability
 Dynamic Stability
•Time history of motion after
disturbance from equilibrium
•Vehicle could be statically
stable but dynamically unstable (F)
•For dynamic stability, it must
be statically stable
•Disturbance can damp out by
dissipation of energy called
damping. So for dynamic stability,
vehicle should have a positive
damping coefficient

21
 Dynamic Stability 22

 What happens to airplane response in subsequent time (dynamic response)

 Does it eventually come back to equilibrium point? If yes how and in how much time?
 A small video on the topic

Note: In case video is not played in the Lecture, the video is placed separately as well in the folder
Overview to Stability & Control

Stability Control
The initial Pitching
Static Elevator
tendency Moment

Time history Rolling

Dynamic Aileron Moment
of response

Yawing
Rudder
Moment

Importance : Determine handling qualities of A/C

and Pilot comfort
Q&A