Static/Dynamic Stability

Longitudinal Static
Stability
Static Stability
• We begin with the concept of Equilibrium (Trim).
Equilibrium is a state of an object when it is at rest or in
steady uniform motion, (i.e., with constant linear and angular
momenta).
– The resultant of all forces and moment about the CG must both be
equal to zero.
• Stability is defined as the ability of an aircraft to return to a given
equilibrium state after a disturbance (it is a property of the
equilibrium state)
• STATICALLY STABLE when
– if it is disturbed from its equilibrium state by a small displacement,
then
– the set of forces and moments so caused initially tend to return the
aircraft to its original state
Trimmed Flight
(or steady unaccelerated flight)

• Trimmed flight when all the forces and moments are

balanced (thrust = drag; lift = weight; pitching moment = 0;
yawing moment = 0; rolling moment = 0)

•The steady flight condition may involve a steady

acceleration e.g. a correctly banked turn, or a steady dive or
climb.

• Pitch trim would be accomplished by deflecting the

horizontal stabilizer, the elevator, or the elevator trim tab.

• Trimmed state IS NOT NECESSARILY A STABLE STATE

– i.e. all the forces and moments may be balanced, but as
soon as the state is perturbed the aircraft departs from
equilibrium.
Types of Stability
Static Stability
Static stability of a body is an initial
tendency of that body to return to
its equilibrium state after a disturbance.

Static longitudinal instability

In this case there is no tendency to
return to equilibrium
Any disturbance from equilibrium
leads to a larger disturbance, the
motion is said to be divergent

Artificial damping is needed

Stability Augmentation System SAS

Neutral static stability is the

boundary between stability and
instability, there is still no tendency
to return to equilibrium, the motion is
therefore not stable
But, the motion does not diverge
Static Stability
Dynamic Stability
Dynamic Stability
Pilot-Induced Oscillation (PIO)
• PIOs occur when a pilot over-controls an aircraft and a sustained oscillation results
• Pilot-induced oscillations occur when the pilot of an aircraft inadvertently commands an often increasing
series of corrections in opposite directions, each an attempt to correct for the previous overcorrection with
an overcorrection in the opposite direction. The physics of flight make such oscillations more probable for
pilots than for automobile drivers. An attempt to cause the aircraft to climb, say by applying up elevator will
also result in a reduction in airspeed.

• Another factor is the response rate of flight instruments in comparison to the response rate of the aircraft
itself. An increase in power will not result in an immediate increase in airspeed. An increase in climb rate
will not show up immediately on the vertical speed indicator.

• A pilot aiming for a 500 foot per minute descent, for example, may find himself descending too rapidly. He
begins to apply up elevator until the vertical speed indicator shows 500 feet per minute. However, because
the vertical speed indicator lags the actual vertical speed, he is actually descending at much less than 500
feet per minute. He then begins applying down elevator until the vertical speed indicator reads 500 feet per
minute, starting the cycle over. It's harder than it might seem to stabilize the vertical speed because the
airspeed also constantly changes.

• The most dangerous pilot-induced oscillations can occur during landing. A bit too much up elevator during
the flare can result in the plane getting dangerously slow and threatening to stall. A natural reaction to this
is to push the nose down harder than one pulled it up, but then the pilot finds himself staring at the ground.
An even larger amount of up elevator starts the cycle over again.

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/F-8DFBW/HTML/EM-0044-01.html
Longitudinal Static Stability
• Longitudinal static stability is the stability of an
aircraft in the longitudinal, or pitching, plane during
static (established) conditions. This characteristic is
important in determining whether an aircraft will be
able to fly as intended.

• The longitudinal stability of an aircraft refers to the

aircraft's stability in the pitching plane - the plane
which describes the position of the aircraft's nose in
relation to its tail and the horizon. (Other stability
modes are directional stability and lateral stability.)
Statically Stable Response
Longitudinal Static Stability
Longitudinal Static Stability
Longitudinal static
stability moments as a
function of angle of
attack. The curve
is a composite of all the
moment curves
caused by the different
components of
the airplane, (the wing,
fuselage, tail,
thrust, etc).

Longitudinal static stability components

Stable, neutral, and unstable static stability
DC-9. Note the contributions from the various
components and the highly nonlinear post-stall
characteristics
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9
•There are different degrees of
stability

• Some aircraft tend to

return to equilibrium
faster

•An aircraft can be

stable at lower angles
of attack but may be
unstable at higher
angles of attack
Wing Contribution
Wing Contribution
Wing Contribution
Nonlinear contributions
Nonlinear contributions
Wing Contribution

• Positive camber give nose-down pitching moment

• Negatively cambered airfoil gives nose-up pitching moment and cancels nose-down
moment caused by lift and weight vectors

• For straight-winged, tailless airplane, negative camber satisfies conditions for stable,
balanced flight

• Not in general use

• Dynamic characteristics poor
• Drag and CLmax poor
•The permissible C.G. range is too
small
Wing Contribution
• A positive pitching moment about the aerodynamic center
can be achieved by using a negative-cambered airfoil section
or an airfoil section that has a reflexed trailing edge.

• For many airplanes, the center of gravity position is located

slightly aft of the aerodynamic center.

•The wing is normally constructed of airfoil profiles having

positive camber.

•Therefore, the wing contribution to static longitudinal

stability is destabilizing for most conventional airplanes.
On fixed-wing aircraft, the angle of incidence (sometimes referred to as
the mounting angle) is the angle between the chord line of the wing where the
wing is mounted to the fuselage, and a reference axis along the fuselage (often
the direction of minimum drag, or where applicable, the longitudinal axis).
Conventional and forward tail arrangement
When the wing is at zero lift, the auxiliary surface must provide a nose-up
moment. The conventional tail must therefore be at a negative angle of attack, and
the Canard tail at a positive angle.
Swept back wing with twisted tips
• An alternative to the wing-tail combination is the swept-back
wing with twisted tips as shown in the previous slide. When the
net lift is zero, the forward part of the wing has positive lift, and
the rear part negative. The result is a positive couple, as desired.

• A variant of the swept-back wing is the delta wing. The positive

Cm0 can be achieved with such planforms by twisting the tips, by
employing negative camber, or by incorporating an upturned
tailing edge flap.
Sweepback
• Sweepback Angle is the angle at which the wing points
backwards from the root to the tip.
• Sweepback is used mainly on high-speed aircraft and its
primary purpose is to delay the formation of sonic shock waves
which are produced at high speeds and cause a large increase
in drag.
• The secondary effect of sweepback is to improve lateral stability.
When a side-slip occurs, the lower wing presents a larger span
as seen from the direction of the approaching air, and as with
dihedral, the effect is to roll the aircraft back towards the
horizontal.
• In general, as the sweepback angle is increased the dihedral
angle will be reduced.
• Washout refers to a feature of wing design to deliberately
reduce the lift distribution across the span of the wing of
an aircraft. The wing is designed so that the angle of incidence
is greater at the wing roots and decreases across the span,
becoming lowest at the wing tip. This is usually to ensure that,
at the stall, the wing root stalls before the wing tips, providing
the aircraft with continued aileron control and some resistance
to spinning. Washout may also be used to modify the spanwise
lift distribution to reduce lift-induced drag. The lift distribution
can also be modified beneficially with washin, an initial increase
of incidence outward from the roots.

• Washout is commonly achieved by designing the wing with a

slight twist, reducing the angle of incidence from root to tip, and
therefore causing a lower angle of attack at the tips than at the
roots.
Tailless Aircraft

One example of
a tailless aircraft
that trims using a
positive Cm0
airfoil section: the
AeroVironment
Pathfinder, solar-powered
Aircraft on a flight to over
50,000 ft (15.2 km).
Example # 1

• For a given wing-body combination, the aerodynamic center lies 0.03

chord length ahead of the center of gravity. The moment coefficient
about the center of gravity is 0.0050, and the lift coefficient is 0.50.
• Calculate the moment coefficient about the aerodynamic center.
Example # 2
• Consider a model of a wing-body shape mounted in a wind tunnel. The flow
conditions in the test section are standard sea-level properties with a velocity of 100
m/s. The wing area and chord are 1.5 m2 and 0.45 m, respectively.

• Using the wind tunnel force and moment-measuring balance, the moment about the
center of gravity when the lift is zero is found to be -12.4 N • m.

• When the model is pitched to another angle of attack, the lift and moment about the
center of gravity are measured to be 3675 N and 20.67 N • m, respectively.

• Calculate the value of the moment coefficient about the aerodynamic

center and the location of the aerodynamic center.
Example # 2 Cont’d
Example # 2 Cont’d