Aircraft Performance

Lecture 7: Introduction to Stability and Control

2023
 Introduction
• How well an airplane ies and how easily it can be controlled are
subjects studied in aircraft stability and control.

• Stability: the tendency of the airplane to return to its equilibrium

position after it has been disturbed

• Disturbance: may be generated by the pilot's actions or atmospheric

phenomena

• Atmospheric disturbances: wind gusts, wind gradients, or turbulent air.

• An airplane must have su cient stability that the pilot does not become
fatigued by constantly having to control the airplane owing to external
disturbances.

• Although airplanes with little or no inherent aerodynamic stability can be

own, they are unsafe to y unless they are provided arti cial stability by
an electromechanical device called a stability augmentation system.
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 Introduction
• Two conditions are necessary for an airplane to y its mission
successfully:

The airplane must be able to achieve equilibrium ight

It must have the capability to maneuver for a wide range of

ight velocities and altitudes.

• To achieve equilibrium or perform maneuvers, the airplane must

be equipped with aerodynamic and propulsive controls.

• The design and performance of control systems is an integral

part of airplane stability and control.
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Introduction
Definitions
Stability
• Stability is a property of an equilibrium state.
• In steady uniform ight: the resultant force and the resultant
moment about the center of gravity must both be equal to 0

• An airplane satisfying this requirement is said to be in a state of

equilibrium or ying at a trim condition

• If the forces and moments do not sum to 0, the airplane will be

subjected to translational and rotational accelerations

• Airplane stability:
Static stability

Dynamic stability
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Static Stability

(a) Statically Stable

(b) Statically Unstable

(c) Neutral Stability

Static Stability

• Static stability is the initial tendency of a vehicle to return to its

equilibrium state after a disturbance.

• If we are to have a stable equilibrium point, the vehicle must

develop a restoring force or moment to bring it back to the
equilibrium condition

• Here we say nothing about whether a vehicle ever reaches its

equilibrium position or how it gets there
Static Stability
Example
Dynamic Stability

• Dynamic stability deals with the time history of the vehicle’s

motion after it is disturbed from its equilibrium point

• A body is dynamically stable if, of its own accord, it eventually

returns to and remains at its equilibrium position over time
Dynamic Stability

Static Stability vs. Dynamic Stability: https://youtu.be/Q2DOus05Qso

Dynamic Stability

• A vehicle can be statically stable but dynamically unstable

• However, for the vehicle to be dynamically stable it must be
statically stable
Dynamic Stability
Damping

• The reduction of the disturbance with time indicates that there

is resistance to the motion and, therefore, energy is being
dissipated

• The dissipation of energy is called positive damping.

• If energy is being added to the system, then we have a negative
damping.
Positive Damping
• Positive damping for an airplane is provided by forces and
moments that arise owing to the airplane's motion.

• In positive damping, these forces and moments will oppose the

motion of the airplane and cause the disturbance to damp out
with time.
 Negative Damping
• An airplane that has negative aerodynamic damping will be
dynamically unstable.

• To y such an airplane, arti cial damping must be designed into

the vehicle.

• The arti cial damping is provided by a stability augmentation

system (SAS).

• Stability augmentation system: an electromechanical device that

senses the undesirable motion and moves the appropriate
controls to damp out the motion.

• This usually is accomplished with small control movements and,

therefore, the pilot's control actions are not in uenced by the
system.
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Degree of Dynamic Stability

• Dynamic stability: speci ed by the time it takes a disturbance to

be damped to half of its initial amplitude

• In the case of an unstable motion: the time it takes for the initial
amplitude of the disturbance to double.

• In the case of an oscillatory motion: the frequency and period

of the motion are extremely important.

• The degree of dynamic stability is interested by the pilot and the

designer
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Pilot Induced Oscillation
• An airplane that is dynamically stable to external disturbances
with the controls xed can become unstable by the pilot's control
actions

• If the pilot attempts to correct a disturbance and that control

input is out of phase with the oscillatory motion of the airplane,
the control actions would increase the motion rather than correct
it.

• This type of pilot-vehicle response is called pilot-induced

oscillation (PIO)

• Factors contribute to the PIO tendency of an airplane: insu cient

aerodynamic damping, insu cient control system damping, and
pilot reaction time
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Control
• The conventional control surfaces:
elevators, ailerons, and rudder

• Their functions:
(1) to change the airplane from one
equilibrium position to another and

(2) to produce non-equilibrium

accelerated motions such as
maneuvers.

• Airplane control studies:

The de ections of the ailerons,
elevators, and rudder necessary to
make the airplane do what we want

The amount of force that must be

exerted by the pilot (or the
hydraulic boost system) to de ect
these controls
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Control Surfaces
Secondary
Flight
Control
Control Trimming Surfaces
• Trim tabs are small, secondary ight
control surfaces that are attached to the trailing
edge of a larger, primary control surface such as
an elevator or rudder.
• The trim tab is used to "trim", or counteract the
aerodynamic force on the control surface and
thus stabilize the aircraft in the axis of
rotation associated with the primary control.
• Trim tabs can be either ight adjustable or xed.
• Trimming controls reduces the e ort required to
adjust or maintain a desired ight attitude.
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Nomenclature
Coordinate Systems
• A suitable coordinate system is
necessary for the formulation of
the equations of motion

• The coordinate system xed to

the Earth: inertial coordinate
system

• The coordinate system xed to

the airplane: body coordinate
system
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Forces and Moments
Note: The origin of the body xed coordinate
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system is at the center of gravity (c.g.)
 Forces and Moments
In terms of dimensionless coe cients

Q: the ight dynamic pressure

S: the wing platform area
: characteristic length
- the wing span for the rolling and
yawing moment
- the mean chord for the pitching
moment
Cx, Cy, Cz, Cl, Cm, Cn: aerodynamic
coe cient, function of Mach number,
Reynolds number, angle of attack,
sideslip angle
𝑙
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 Angle of Attack and Sideslip

If and < 15o

𝛼
𝛽
Moments Acting on an Airplane

• In previous sections, we focus on equilibrium of forces: lift, drag,

thrust, weight

• A study of stability and control is focused on moments: moments

on the airplane and moments on the control surfaces

• Recall that the pressure and shear stress distributions over a

wing produce a pitching moment

• Aerodynamic center of the wing: the moments are independent

of the angle of attack
Aerodynamic Center
• Beside L and D, the pressure and shear
stress distribution also a moment M: varying
with ↵
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• The value of M is dependent on where the

moment is taken, MLE 6= Mc/4
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• There’s a point on chord line called

aerodynamic center: M is independent of ↵,
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Mac = const

• The location of the aerodynamic center for

real aerodynamic shapes can be found from
experiment.

• For low-speed subsonic airfoils, the

aerodynamic center is generally very close to
the quarter-chord point.
Moments about Center of Gravity
• The force and moment system on a wing can be speci ed by the
lift and drag acting through the aerodynamic center, plus the
moment about the aerodynamic center

• Pitching moment about center of gravity: Mcg

• Contributions to Mcg: (1) L, D, and Mac of the wing; (2) lift of the
tail; (3) thrust; and (4) aerodynamic forces and moments on other
parts of the airplane, such as the fuselage and engine nacelles.

What’s
contribution
of Weight?

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Moments about Center of Gravity

• Mcg is a fundamental parameter to the stability and control of an

airplane

• The moment coe cient about the center of gravity is de ned as:
Mcg
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CM,cg =
q1 Sc

• An airplane is in equilibrium (in pitch) when the moment about

the center of gravity is zero

• When Mcg = CM,cg = 0, the airplane is said to be trimmed

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Longitudinal Static Stability

• Static stability and control about all three axes are usually a
necessity in the design of conventional airplanes.

• Longitudinal stability is the most important static stability mode

in airplane design, wind tunnel testing, and ight research.

• Longitudinal stability usually receives more attention than lateral

or directional stability

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Longitudinal Stability
Negative slope moment coe cient curve

Illustration of static stability.

(a) Equilibrium position (trimmed).
(b) Pitched upward by disturbance.
(c) Pitched downward by disturbance.
In both (b) and (c) the airplane has the initial
tendency to return to its equilibrium position.
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Longitudinal Stability
Positive slope moment coe cient curve

Illustration of static instability.

(a) Equilibrium position (trimmed).
(b) Pitched upward by disturbance.
(c) Pitched downward by disturbance.
In both (b) and (c) the airplane has the initial
tendency to diverge further from its equilibrium
position.
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 Longitudinal Stability
Criteria

• CM,0 must be positive

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@CM,cg
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must be negative.
• @↵a

• ↵e must also fall within the

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ight range of angle of attack

for the airplane

• Assumptions: a xed elevator

position —> stick- xed
stability
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