AIRCRAFT FLIGHT

DYNAMICS

Lecture 2
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WHAT IS FLIGHT DYNAMICS?

• Flight - the action or process of flying through the air
• Dynamics - the branch of classical mechanics that is
concerned with the study of forces and their effects on
motion

• This tool allows us to construct a mathematical model of

an aircraft to analyze and predict flight characteristics.
• What is a model?
• A simpler representation of a system that has sufficient
fidelity to represent the parameters of interest.
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FORCES ON AN AIRPLANE
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THE 5 COURSE MODULES:

1- AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE:
• Understanding how speed is measured on an aircraft using a pitot-
static

• Defining and converting between Indicated, Calibrated, Equivalent,

True Airspeed, and Groundspeed

• Defining relationships between basic forces and motion in steady,

level flight, with aircraft represented by a point mass.

• Range calculations.

• Understanding aircraft loading in accelerated flight.

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2- AIRCRAFT EQUATIONS OF
MOTION
• Earth, Stability, Wind, Body Axes systems

• Aerodynamic Angles

• Euler Angles

• Reference frames, and relative motion

• Newton’s Second law as applied for aircraft forces and

moments
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3- STATIC STABILITY

• Defining trimmed conditions

• Utilizing relationships between control surface

deflections, and forces around the aircraft CG.
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4- LINEARIZATION OF
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
• Using the small perturbation theory to linearise the
aircraft nonlinear differential equations of motion.

• Developing transfer functions to relate control input and

state/non-state variables.

• Understanding the difference between aircraft states and

other variables
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5- AIRCRAFT KINETICS

• Stability definitions for first order and second order

systems.
• Laplace transforms, characteristic equation.
• Longitudinal EOM dynamics; short-period (pitch) mode,
phugoid mode.
• Lateral/Directional EOM dynamics; spiral mode, roll
mode, Dutch roll mode.
• Predicting the dynamic stability of fixed wing aircraft.
• Reduced order models for modes.
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REVIEW OF BASICS: AIRCRAFT ANATOMY

(STANDARD FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT)
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• Aircraft Control Surfaces in Red and High Lift Devices in Blue

• Flight is controlled through movable parts of the aircraft, and
from adjusting the propulsion.
• Note that some aircraft have additional flow control devices
such as spoilers but there are not discussed here. See video:
https://youtu.be/XxrdhJanotw?t=125
 CONTROL SURFACES
• The control surfaces are there to alter the aircraft’s attitude
(its orientation in 3D space). They are:
• Ailerons - these are outboard on each wing, and operate in
differential mode, meaning if one goes up, the other goes
down. These are effected via a sideways stick/yoke

on the other, effecting a roll rate, 𝑝, which changes the roll

movement. This increases lift on one wing, and decreases it

angle, 𝜙.
 CONTROL SURFACES
• The control surfaces are there to alter the aircraft’s attitude
(its orientation in 3D space). They are:
• The elevator is usually situated on the horizontal stabilizer,

tail lift, and changes the aircraft pitch attitude, 𝜃. This is

and both sides move together. This increases/decreases the

controlled by moving the stick/yoke forward/aft.

Boeing use yoke while
airbus use the stick to
control the aircraft
 CONTROL SURFACES
• The control surfaces are there to alter the aircraft’s attitude
(its orientation in 3D space). They are:
• The rudder is on the vertical tail, and is a single control
surface. If the rudder moves to the port (left), it creates a
sideways aerodynamic force on the tail towards starboard

angle, 𝛽. This is controlled using pedals in the cockpit.

(right), which moves the aircraft nose-port to a sideslip
 WINGS
• We will look at trapezoidal wings for most of this course
• we usually define wing parameters in terms of gross
wing
 WING PARAMETERS
• The swing, or sweep, is a measure of how far back the
tip is compared to the root.
• It is measured by the sweep of the quarter-chord line.
• The so-called root chord is usually defined on the
aircraft centerline.
XF91-21
DEFINITION OF WING
PARAMETERS
AERODYNAMIC, PROPULSIVE, AND
INERTIAL FORCES IN A STEADY,
LEVEL FLIGHT
• Steady means not accelerating
• level means that there is no variation in altitude -
this does not mean that the wings are level, so the
aircraft may be turning in a steady turn
• Since the aircraft is not accelerating, the forces must be
in equilibrium
• We summarize our forces on the aircraft as two
aerodynamic forces, one propulsive, and one inertial
• Lift - 𝐿 - the aerodynamic force normal to the incident
flow velocity, acting in a ‘lifting’ sense.
• Drag - 𝐷 - the aerodynamic force parallel to the incident
flow velocity, opposing motion.
• Weight - 𝑊 - the inertial force acting downward; 𝑊=𝑚𝑔
where 𝑔=9.80665 ms−2, the acceleration due to gravity.
• Thrust - 𝑇 - the propulsive force parallel to the aircraft
longitudinal axis, providing motion.
 AERODYNAMIC COEFFICIENTS

• In general, it’s useful to be able to remove units from expressions

in engineering for a number of reasons:

• It enables us to work between unit systems (i.e., between

metric and imperial unit systems) without conversion.
• It enables us to compare aircraft of differing sizes in terms of
performance.
• It enables us to perform scale model work of aircraft and
extend the results to full-size.
• forces 𝐿 and 𝐷 represent dimensional lift and drag, which we
may measure in Newtons, Pounds-Force, Dyne, or Kip
LIFT AND DRAG COEFFICIENTS

• Aside: Dynamic pressure

where 𝜌 is the
• the fluid's kinetic energy per unit

fluid density, 𝑉
volume
• For incompressible flow, the
dynamic pressure of a fluid is the is the flow
difference between its total pressure speed, S is the
and static pressure. More details in wing area.
Fluid Mechanics textbooks.
 AEROFOIL/AIRFOIL

• an infinitesimal slice of a wing