Course Instructor: Dr.

Rajesh Senthil Kumar T

 Lecture Outline:

1) Equations of motion in vertical plane

a) Assumptions

b) Reference frames

c) Derivation
To derive equations of motions in vertical
plane (i.e., the translation motion in
corresponding plane)
 Newton’s Second Law
The equations of motion for an aircraft are derived based on Newton’s second law:

Forces of Fight
ma  F

Weight of the Aerodynamic

The components of Force vector can be
Thrust
vehicle forces
represented as Scalar Form with respect to
interested or arbitrary direction in the space.
Lift Drag

*For rotational motion, the moment equation is given by

I  M
 Equation of Motion in vertical plane
Assumptions:

1. The aircraft is assumed to a rigid body and treated as a point mass ( located at center of

gravity of aircraft)

2. Treated as Quasi-Steady Flight ( i.e., any acceleration or rate of change of any of the key

variables are sufficiently small in magnitude or duration so that they may be neglected).

3. Flat and nonrotating earth as inertial frame .

4. The motions are confined to the vertical plane (i.e., no slide-slip ). The vertical plane acts

as plane of symmetry which exactly divides aircraft into two equal parts.
Reference Frame:
1. Ground (Earth) -axes System or Inertial frame of
Reference (Exyz):
It is fixed to the surface of the earth and “Exz” plane is
the vertical plane Oxb
2. Local – horizon System (Oxhyhzh): Oxw
It originates at the C.G of the aircraft and moves along
Oxh
with the aircraft but its axes remains parallel to ground-
axes system
3. Wind – axes System (Oxwywzw):
Ozb
It originates at the C.G of the aircraft and moves along
Ozh Ozw
with the aircraft. Its Oxw axis coincides with the velocity
vector.
4. Body-axes system (Oxbybzb): Ex
It originates at the C.G of the aircraft and fixed with the
This figure is convenient
aircraft. Its Oxb axis usually considered to aligned with the
and exaggerated to show
chord direction. the details.
Ez
Derivation: Let the aircraft moves along the curved flight path in calm atmosphere
Lift Following the second assumption, we write

Thrust
F Ext
0
Resolving the external forces along the wind-
, Thrust angle of attack axes system yields two scalar equations
V
, Flight path angle
T cos   D  W sin γ  0
Drag L  T sin   W cos γ  0
Generally , it is assumed that thrust angle of attack is very
 small.

Weight
T  D  W sin γ  0 Equ (1)

This figure is convenient and exaggerated to show L  W cos γ  0 Equ (2)

the details.
The motion of the aircraft with respect to the earth is described by two more kinematic
equations.
Since the local horizon axes are always parallel to
the ground axes, their unit vectors are equal, that is,

ih  i & kh  k
Equ (3)
dih di dkh dk
 0 &  0
dt dt dt dt
The wind axes unit vectors are related to the local
horizon unit vectors as

iw  cos  ih  sin  kh
kw  sin  ih  cos  kh Equ (4)

diw dkw
  kw &   iw
The unit vectors associated with the coordinate directions
are denoted by i, j, and k with appropriate subscripts. dt dt
The definition of velocity relative to the ground
(inertial velocity) is given by

The velocity V and the position vector EO must be

expressed in the same coordinate system to obtain
the corresponding scalar equations.

then we get,

and leads to the following scalar equations: Equ (4)

Hence, the motion of the aircraft with respect to the earth axes
9