REP: Atmospheric Flight Mechanics

October 30

ASSIGNMENT- 1
Prakhar Tomar-SC20B040
B.Tech, Aerospace Engineering
IIST, Thiruvananthapuram

ABSTRACT 1 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO GLIDING

Gliding is such a motion of an aircraft which does not re- Gliding is one of the maneuvers which an aircraft performs
quire any thrust from the aircraft engine. An appreciable amount while flying. The speciality of gliding is that it does not require
of time is spent by an aircraft doing glide. This report does a any power or thrust from the aircraft engine. Even if the engine
gliding analysis of an aircraft, with given design parameters. is shut down, an aircraft can glide easily (figure 1). And due to
The analysis is done both analytically and numerically, and both this reason, gliding can not only be seen in aircrafts, but also in
kinds of results are compared. The behaviour of variation in var- nature. Various birds like Eagle and Albatross can commonly be
ious glide parameters is also analyzed. seen gliding in air, with negligible effort from their wings.

NOMENCLATURE
L Lift, N
D Drag, N
W Weight, N
T Thrust, N
v Aircraft speed, m/s
h Height of the aircraft above ground, m
α Angle of attack, °
γ Flight path angle, °
CL Lift coefficient
CD Drag coefficient
E L/D
ρ Density of air, Kg/m3
ρSL Density of air at sea level, Kg/m3 FIGURE 1. A gliding aircraft
CD0 Parasitic drag coefficient
CL0 Zero angle of attack lift coefficient
e Ostwald’s efficiency factor Since no thrust is provided to the aircraft while gliding, it is
AR Aspect Ratio nothing but a freely falling body. Thus, due to gravity, it loses
R Aircraft range, m height with time. But with decreasing vertical distance from
T Aircraft endurance, s ground, it also covers an appreciable horizontal distance. This
β Angelo Miele constant, m makes glide useful for covering long distances with minimal

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fuel usage. acceleration terms equate to zero. Lastly, we consider α to be
very small during gliding. Thus, the above equations reduce to:

2 ANALYTICAL EQUATIONS FOR GLIDING

The main forces acting on a flying aircraft are lift, weight,
D = −W sinγ
thrust and drag. Its free body diagram can hence be drawn as:

L = W cosγ

dx
= vcosγ
dt

dh
= vsinγ
dt

If we write drag and lift as:

1
D = CD · ρv2 S
2

If we resolve the forces along and perpendicular to the

1
thrust direction, and equate them to the respective accelarations, L = CL · ρv2 S
we will obtain the following equations: 2

,where CL and CD are generally given as:

dv
m = T cosα − D −W sinγ
dt CL = CL0 + aα 2

dγ
mv = T sinα + L −W cosγ CL2
dt CD = CD0 +
πeAR
Resolving velocity in similar fashion, we get:
,and solve the above equations, we will get values of CL
and CD for various cases of gliding. They are given as follows:
(While solving, we make an assumption of gamma to be very
small)
dx
= vcosγ
dt

2.1 Minimum Glide Angle

dh This case corresponds to the maximum range case because
= vsinγ
dt for a given initial height of the aircraft, range will be maximum
for minimum flight path angle (which is same as glide angle).
Now, as we know, thrust during gliding is zero. Also, for For this case:
analytical derivations, we take the glide to be steady, i.e, the

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 3 EQUATIONS FOR NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
For numerical analysis of glide, unsteady glide is being
CL = CL∗ =
p
CD0 · 4πeAR considered, i.e., the acceleration terms are not zero. The only
condition applied on the general set of equations for an aircraft
is that the thrust force on the aircraft is zero, which is the very
definition of glide. The resulting equations on imposing the
CD = CD∗ = 2CD0
above conditions are:

s
C∗ 1 πeAR
R = Rmax = ∗L = ∆h (1)
CD 2 CD0 dv
m = −D −W sinγ
dt
Here CD0 and CL0 are design parameters and are fixed for a
given wing.
dγ
mv = L −W cosγ
dt
2.2 Minimum Sink Rate
This case corresponds to maximum endurance because the
lesser the rate with with the aircraft is coming towards ground dx
(which is sink rate), the more time it will spend in air, flying. = vcosγ
dt
Hence giving maximum endurance. For this case:

dh
= vsinγ
dt
√ ∗ p
CL = 3CL = 3CD0 πeAr
We rearrange the equations so as to keep only derivative
term on the left hand side, and also the value of D and L is
CD = 2CD∗ = 4CD0 substituted as:

r 3
sρSL CL2 −h1
T = Tmax = · · 2β (1 − e 2β ) 1
2W CD D = CD · ρv2 S
2
r 3 3
sρSL 3 4 (πeAR) 4 −h1
= · · β (1 − e 2β ) (2) 1
2W 1
2CD4 0 L = CL · ρv2 S
2

2.3 Maximum CL where ρ can be written as a function of height:

Maximum CL (= CLmax ) corresponds to stall condition. CLmax
is a design parameter and is fixed for a given wing. This is the
maximum α that the aircraft can achieve. If the α increases −h
more than this, the aircraft starts falling. For this case: ρ = ρSL e β

where β =9296 m, since h=0.3 Km (<11 Km). This gives us

our final equations:
CL = CLmax

CL2 CL2 dv CD −h
CD = CD0 + = CD0 + max = ρSL e 9296 v2 S − gsinγ
πeAR πeAR dt 2m

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 dγ CL −h gcosγ
= ρSL e 9296 vS −
dt 2m v

dx
= vcosγ
dt

dh
= vsinγ
dt

These four coupled ordinary differential equations are

solved simultaneously and the results are plotted on a graph us-
ing Python programming language. The variables here are v, γ, x
and h. t is the independent variable. The initial conditions given FIGURE 3. Minimum sink rate case
to us are: v0 =50 m/s and h0 =3000 m. The graphs plotted are v-t,
γ-t and h-x.

4 Results and Discussion

4.1 γ -t graph
The γ versus t graph for minimum glide angle case looks
like:

FIGURE 4. CLmax case

In CLmax case also, the oscillations die down faster than min-
imum glide angle case, and the final constant negative value ob-
tained is nearly -0.091°(figure 4).
FIGURE 2. Minimum glide angle case

The value of γ starts from zero, and then starts oscillating

with time. The oscillations reduce with time and eventually die
down after which γ attains a constant negative value of nearly -
0.08°. The behaviour of γ versus t is same in other two cases also.

In minimum sink rate case, the oscillations settle relatively

faster, and the final constant negative value obtained is nearly
-0.093°(figure 3).

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 FIGURE 5. Combined graph for all three cases
FIGURE 7. Minimum sink rate case
4.2 v-t graph
The velocity versus time graph for minimum glide angle
case looks like:

FIGURE 8. CLmax case

FIGURE 6. Minimum glide angle case

As is visible from the graph, the value of v starts from 50

m/s and starts oscillating with time. The oscillations reduce and
eventually die down, after which velocity keeps decreasing with
time throughout the glide of aircraft. The same behaviour is seen
in other two graphs also:

FIGURE 9. Combined graph for all three cases

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 From figure 9, it can be noted that the rate of reduction in
aircraft speed with time is almost same for all the three case. But
at a given time, speed of aircraft in the minimum glide angle case
is greatest, followed by the CLmax case and then the minimum sink
rate case.

4.3 h-x graph

The height versus range graph for minimum glide angle
case looks like:

FIGURE 11. Minimum sink rate case

FIGURE 10. Minimum glide angle case

From the graph, it can be observed that the initial value of h

starts from 3000 m, and then starts oscillating. The oscillations
reduce and eventually die down with time, giving a steady
decrease oh height with time. For this case, the height becomes FIGURE 12. CLmax case
nearly zero at x=37961.31 m. The behaviour of h with time is
same in the other two graphs, but the x for which height becomes
nearly zero is different.

In the case of minimum sink rate (figure 11), the height

becomes nearly zero at x=32854.68 m. And in the CLmax case,
the height becomes nearly zero at x=33345.85 m.

FIGURE 13. Combined graph for all three cases

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 From figure 13, it can be concluded that for a given horizon- 152. 10.3390/aerospace7100152.
tal distance covered by the aircraft, it will be at the most height
for the minimum glide case, followed by the CLmax case and then [2] https://media.istockphoto.com
the minimum sink rate case. Moreover, the range is maximum
for minimum glide angle case (which verifies with the theory),
followed by the CLmax case and then the minimum sink rate case.

4.4 Comparison of analytical and theoretical results

The behaviour of graphs, after the oscillations die down, is
the same as predicted by analytical solutions.

4.4.1 Rmax : The formula of Rmax was derived in the

minimum glide angle case. If we substitute the values of all
the variables (which are all given) in that formula, we get
Rmaxanalytical =37179.31 m. Whereas, from the numerical analy-
sis (graphs), we get the vale of Rmaxnumerical =37961.31 m (from
graph 10). Considering the analytical value as the true value, the
error obtained in calculating Rmax numerically is:

Rmaxnumerical − Rmaxanalytical
Error = × 100
Rmaxanalytical

37961.31 − 37179.31
= × 100 = 2.10%
37179.31

4.4.2 Tmax : The formula of Tmax was derived in the mini-

mum sink rate case. If we substitute the values of all the variables
(which are all given) in that formula, we get Tmaxanalytical =1180.77
s. Whereas, from the numerical analysis (graphs), we get the vale
of Tmaxnumerical =1214.27 s. Considering the analytical value as the
true value, the error obtained in calculating Tmax numerically is:

Tmaxnumerical − Tmaxanalytical
Error = × 100
Tmaxanalytical

1214.27 − 1180.77
= × 100 = 2.84%
1180.77

Both the errors are within 5%, which is the acceptable range.
Hence we can conclude that our numerical model for the aircraft
is pretty accurate and agrees well with the analytical results.

5 REFERENCES
[1] Jasa, John & Brelje, Benjamin & Gray, Justin &
Mader, Charles & Martins, Joaquim. (2020). Large-Scale Path-
Dependent Optimization of Supersonic Aircraft. Aerospace. 7.

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