Chapter 7 Stability and control

1. State whether the statement is true or false, and if it is false, correct it.
a) When the elevator moves down, it will decrease the pitching moment around center of
gravity.
b) Statically stable aircrafts are dynamically stable.
c) Lateral stability is improved when the wing is swept back.

2. What is the difference between chord line and zero-lift line for an airfoil?

3. Define horizontal tail volume ratio. What is its importance for longitudinal stability?

4. For an aircraft in steady level flight, describe how we can change trimming velocity.

5. Define neutral point, zero-lift line, absolute angle of attack, and static margin. Explain the
conditions for longitudinal static stability.

6. What is the difference between static stability and dynamic stability?

7. Explain why aircrafts need a tail?

8. State the conditions for static longitudinal stability. Explain why tail is
needed to achieve this stability.

9. Complete the following statements:

i. Static stability means……………………………………………………………….... ….. … , while dynamic
stability means…………………………………………………...……...
………………………………………………………………………………………….
ii. Stability and control deals with three rotational motions, which are
………………………………………………………………………….
They are controlled using three control surfaces, which are
………………………………………………………………………………………..
iii. Trimming condition is ……………………………………………………….……
iv. The conditions for longitudinal static stability are ………………………………..….
………………………………………………………………………………………….

10. Explain why we need tail or canard to achieve longitudinal static stability.

11. Consider an airplane flying at steady level trimmed flight. How can the pilot fly the airplane at
a faster velocity but still remains in steady level trimmed flight at the same altitude?

12. For longitudinal static stability, the position of the center of gravity must always
be forward of the neutral point. Explain why.

13. State whether the statement is true or false and if it is false, correct it.

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 a) Statically stable aircrafts are dynamically stable.
b) For static stability, the center of gravity should be located forward to the wing
aerodynamic center.
c) Stick-fixed static stability refers to the situation when the pilot moves the stick to a given
position and then leaves it to move under aerodynamic loads.
d) Dihedral is the design feature that provides lateral stability.
e) Static margin is the distance between center of gravity and aircraft nose.
f) Trimming condition means zero-drag condition.
g) The two conditions for longitudinal static stability are the moment about the center of
gravity is zero and its slope with respect to angle of attack is zero.

14. Define static stability, dynamic stability and trimming condition. Explain the conditions for
longitudinal static stability.

15. Draw a tail relative to zero-lift line of the wing body. Show zero-lift line of the tail, lift and drag
vectors, angle of attack, downwash angle, and tail setting angle. Prove that the tail contribution
to pitching moment is:

16. Prove that the tail contribution to moment around center of gravity of the airplane is given
CLt
by CMcgt  VH (at t  e )
 e
17. 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.

18. A wing-body model is tested in a subsonic wind tunnel. The lift is found to be zero at an angle
of attack = 1.5. At =5, the lift coefficient is measured as 0.52. Also, at =1 and 7.88, the
moment coefficients about the center of gravity are measured as 0.01 and 0.05, respectively.
The center of gravity is located at 0.35C. Calculate:
i. the moment coefficient about the aerodynamic center
ii. the location of the aerodynamic center.

19. Use the figure to calculate the moment around cg due to tail. Write only one equation.

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20. 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.

21. A wing-body model is tested in a subsonic wind tunnel. The lift is found to be zero at
geometric angle of attack = 1.5°. The moment coefficient about the aerodynamic center is
0.032. The area and chord of the wing are 0.1 m2 and 0.1 m, respectively. If a tail is added and
the distance from the airplane's center of gravity to the tail's aerodynamic center is 0.17 m.
The tail area is 0.02 m2. The tail-setting angle is 2.7°. The wing lift slope is 0.08 per degree and
the tail lift slope is 0.1 per degree. From experimental measurement, 0 = 0 and d/d= 0.35. If
= 7.88°, calculate CM,cgfor the airplane model.

22. Consider a light aircraft with the following characteristics:

altitude = 2000 m, velocity = 50 m/s, aircraft mass =1050 kg,
wing: area= 15 m2, chord=1.6 m, pitching moment coefficient around aerodynamic center = 
0.07, wing lift slope = 5 rad-1,
horizontal tail: area= 2.3 m2, distance between tail aerodynamic center and aircraft center of
gravity = 4 m, tail lift slope = 4 rad-1, down wash angle slope (𝑑𝜖/𝑑𝛼) = 0.45.
Calculate:
i. neutral point location relative to the aerodynamic center of the wing.
ii. tail lift required to achieve trimming if the center of gravity is placed halfway between the
aerodynamic center and the neutral point.

Final exam Sem II 14-15

An aircraft is flying at a trim condition such that the velocity is 100 m/s and the altitude is 2000 m.
The aircraft has the following characteristics:
aircraft weight =10000 N, longitudinal static margin = 2,
wing: symmetric airfoil, area= 15 m2, chord=1.6 m, wing lift slope = 0.1 per degree,
horizontal tail: area= 2.3 m2, distance between tail aerodynamic center and aircraft center of
gravity = 6 m, tail lift slope = .07 per degree, tail lift change because of elevator deflection = 0.1 per
degree .
If the pilot wants to increase the trim speed to 150 m/s at the same altitude, calculate:
i. the new trim angle of attack,
ii. and the elevator deflection required.