Lecture 1 - The Atmosphere, Aerodynamic and Airplane Nomenclatures (Download Tai Tailieutuoi - Com)

Aircraft Stability and Control – Atmosphere, Airplane Nomenclatures
Ngô Khánh Hiếu 1

Basic definitions (1/8)

Pressure:
- Is the normal force per unit area acting on the - Standard atmospheric pressure at sea-level is
fluid. defined as the pressure that can support a
column of mercury 760 mm in length. So, its
- Static pressure is the pressure of the air above value is 1.01325105 N/m2 (or 2116.22 Ib/ft2).
the elevation being considered.
- to distinguish it from the total and dynamic - The ratio of the pressure P at altitude to sea-
pressures, the actual pressure of the fluid, level standard pressure Po is:
which is associated not with its motion but with
its state, is often referred to as the static
pressure, but where the term pressure alone is
used it refers to this static pressure.
- The equation of state:
- Bernoulli’s equation for incompressible fluids: where: R = 287 J/kgoK
- Many pressure gages indicate the difference

between the absolute pressure and the
atmospheric pressure existing at the gage
p: “free-stream pressure”, static pressure
(gage presssure).
pT: total pressure (Stagnation pressure)

Temperature:
- Is an abstract concept but can be thought of as

a measure of the motion of molecular particles
within a substance.
- The temperatures are measured using the

absolute Kelvin or Rankin scales.
The altitude (h) used in ISA standard

atmosphere is “Geopotential altitudes” (not
“Geometric altitudes”).
- The temperature of atmosphere varies

significantly with altitude. The ratio of ambient
temperature at altitude, T, to a sea-level
standard value, To, is denoted by : However, the difference between these two
altitudes at 30 km is about 0.5%.

Density:
Variation of density
with temperature for
water (ref. Wikipedia)
From the equation of state, it can be seen that

the density of a gas is directly proportional to
the pressure and inversely proportional to the
absolute temperature.
For vehicles that are flying at approximately 100

m/s or less, the density of the air flowing past
the vehicle is assumed constant.
Variation of density
with temperature for
The ratio of ambient air density () to standard
air (ref. Wikipedia)
sea-level air density (o) is given by :


Viscosity: - Kinematic viscosity:
- Viscosity can be thought of as the internal

friction of a fluid. - The unit of kinematic viscosity is stokes.
1 stokes = 100 centistokes = 0.00001 m2/s
- In all real fluids, a shearing deformation is
accompanied by a shearing stress. The 1 centistokes = 1 mm2/s
shearing stress is proportional to the rate of
shearing deformation. The constant of
proportionality is called the coefficient of
viscosity (, kg/m.s).
: Dynamic viscosity
- For temperatures below 3000 K, the dynamic

viscosity of air is independent of pressure. So,
it can be calculated by the Sutherland’s
equation:
(ref. Wikipedia)

Mach number:
- The speed of sound is established by the properties of the fluid. For a perfect gas:
- The aerodynamic characteristics of an airplane depend on the flow regime around the airplane.
As the flight Mach number is increased, the flow around the airplane can be completely
subsonic, a mixture of subsonic and supersonic flow or completely supersonic.
- The flight Mach number is used to classify the various flow regimes. An approximate
classification of the flow regimes follows:
Incompressible subsonic flow 0 < M < 0.3

Compressible subsonic flow 0.3 < M < 0.8
Transonic flow 0.8 < M < 1.2
Supersonic flow 1.2 < M < 5.0
Hypersonic flow 5.0 < M

Pressure variation in a static fluid medium: If fluid particles are either all at rest or all moving with
the same velocity, the fluid is said to be a static medium. Since there is no relative motion between
adjacent layers of the fluids, there are no shear forces. The only forces acting on the surface of the
fluid elements are pressure forces.
- Consider the small fluid element whose center is defined by the coordinates x, y, z.
- For air, the earth’s mean atmosphere

temperature decreases almost linearly with z
up to an altitude of nearly 11000 m. We
obtain:
where: B = 0.0065 K/m; To = 288.15 K


The standard atmosphere: The basis for establishing a standard atmosphere is a defined variation
of temperature with altitude. In reality, variations would exist from one location on the earth to
another and over seasons at a given location. A standard atmosphere is a valuable tool that
provides engineers with a standard when conducting analyses and performance comparisons of
different aircraft design.

Bernoulli’s equation for a compressible fluid:
- If the flow can be assumed to be isentropic,
- For perfect gas,
P0: stagnation pressure

These two equations can be used with
M<1

The atmosphere (1/2)
- Troposphere: h  11000 m
- Troposphere: 11000 m  h  20000 m

The atmosphere (2/2)

Aerodynamic Nomenclature (1/3)
- To describe the motion of an airplane, two coordinate systems are used. One coordinate
system is fixed to the Earth and may be considered for the purpose of aircraft motion
analysis to be an inertial coordinate system. The other coordinate system is fixed to the
airplane and is referred to as a body coordinate system.

- The forces acting on an airplane in flight

consist of aerodynamic, thrust and
gravitational forces. These forces can be
solved along an axis system fixed to the
airplane’s center gravity.

- The angle of attack and sideslip can be

defined in terms of the velocity
components.

Aircraft Instruments (1/4)
- The Pitot static system of an airplane is

used to measure the total pressure created
by the forward motion of the airplane and
the static pressure of the ambient
atmosphere.
- The difference between total and static

pressure is used to measure airspeed, and
the static pressure is used to measure
altitude and rate of climb.

- At high speeds, the Pitot static probe must

be corrected for compressibility effects.
CPo

- VIAS: Indicated airspeed. Airspeed indicated by the airspeed instrument.
- VCAS: Calibrated airspeed. Indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and position errors.
- VEAS: Equivalent airspeed. Calibrated airspeed corrected for compressibility.
- VTAS: True airspeed. Equivalent airspeed corrected for density altitude.

- Barometer: is an instrument used to measure the atmosphere pressure
Hg - Barometer
Aneroid Barometer
- Pressure altitude: is the altitude in the standard atmosphere corresponding to the measured
pressure.
- Density altitude: is the altitude in the standard atmosphere corresponding to the ambient
density. In general, the ambient density is not measured but rather calculated from the
pressure altitude and the ambient temperature.
- Temperature altitude: is the altitude in the standard atmosphere corresponding to the

measured ambient temperature.

Exercises:
1- An altimeter set for sea-level standard pressure indicates an altitude of 20000 ft. If the
outside ambient temperature is -5 F, find the air density and the density altitude.
2- An airplane is flying at an altitude of 5000 m as indicated by the altimeter and the

outside temperature is -20 C. If the airplane is flying at a true airspeed of 300 m/s,
determine the indicated airspeed.
3- A high-altitude, remotely piloted communications platform is flying at a pressure

altitude of 60000 ft and an indicated airspeed of 160 m/s. The outside ambient
temperature is -75 F, estimate the Reynolds number of the wing based on a mean
chord of 3.5 ft.
4- An airplane is flying at a pressure altitude of 10000 ft and the airspeed indicator reads
100 knots. If there is no instrument error and the position error is about 5 knots, find the
true airspeed of the airplane.

Solution:

Airplane Nomenclatures (1/20)

- Empennage: the horizontal stabilizer, "elevators", the vertical stabilizer, "rudder".
Empennage of A380 Double empennage, B-24

Butterfly empennage,
Fouga magister
Empennage in T, Vicker 10


Control Yoke of Boeing 737

- Stability: the tendency of the airplane to return to its equilibrium position after it has been
disturbed. The disturbance may be generated by the pilot’s actions or atmospheric phenomena.
- Control: the capability to maneuver an airplane for a wide range of flight velocities and
altitudes..
The stability and control characteristics of an airplane are referred to as the vehicle’s handling
or flying qualities. The Wright brothers felt that a less stable airplane was better because they
believed it forced the pilot to be diligent. The Wright’s competitor, Glenn Curtiss, believed that
the airplane should be very stable to reduce the pilot’s workload.

- Static Stability:
For an airplane, static stability means that if a gust of air or some other perturbation causes
a change in its current state such as a heading, it will experience a restoring force. Small
general aviation and commercial aircraft, it properly trimmed, will return to straight-and-level
flight after a gust or an abrupt disturbance of the controls.

- Longitudinal Stability: is the tendency for an airplane at a specific pitch attitude to return to
that attitude when perturbed.

- Horizontal Stabilizer: allows adjustment of the center of lift. If the horizontal stabilizer is lifting
upward, it moves the center of lift after. If it is pulling down, it moves the center of lift forward.
The net increase in lift on the wing and reduced

downward force on the horizontal stabilizer
results in the center of lift moving after.

This happens unique location where the wing’s

lift and tail’s lift change together in exact balance.
Notice that the CG of wing is slightly after of the
center of lift of the wing alone.

The lift on the wing grows faster than the lift on

the tail. The result is a rotational torque that
rotates the toy airplane farther from its initial
straight-and-level flight state.

- The horizontal stabilizer and trim tabs maintain pitch stability and it is the elevator that controls
the pitch.
- The engineers must determine the lever arm, which is the fuselage length, and the horizontal
stabilizer area to design a statically stable airplane.
- There is negative impact of increasing either the lever arm or the area of the horizontal
stabilizer. Both translate into higher weight. Both also contribute to higher drag due to skin
friction. The airplane becomes too stable.
- Sizing a horizontal stabilizer involves a combination of versatility (adaptability) in CG, weight,

drag, and handling properties.

- Directional Stability:
The main function of the vertical stabilizer is to help the airplane weathervane and keep the
nose pointed into the direction of flight.
The size of the vertical stabilizer depends on several

factors. A larger vertical stabilizer is needer to counter
propeller rotation effects and adverse yaw in a turn.
A single-engine airplane can get away with the minimum

size vertical stabilizer but will require more work on the
pilot’s part.
For multiengine airplanes, the size of the tail is dictated

by the torque caused by the loss of one engine.


- Dynamic Stability:

- Phugoid Motion: is a trade between kinetic and potential energy, that is, speed and altitude. It
occurs at a constant angle of attack.
In a real airplane, the time it takes to complete one cycle, the period, is on the order of minutes.
In fact, most pilots do not even recognize that they are controlling this motion.
- Dutch Roll: is a motion that couples roll and yaw. It is kind of like the coupling of a small rolling
motion with a small wiggle of the tail. Dutch roll has a short period and presents no major
stability problem.
Because of passenger discomfort, commercial airplanes use yaw dampers which move the
rudder to automatically damp out Dutch roll.

- Spiral Instability: frequently referred to as Spiral Divergence, is instability in yaw and roll
which leads to a downward spiral.
If a spirally unstable aircraft, through the action of a gust or other disturbance, gets a small
initial roll angle to the right, for example, a gentle sideslip to the right is produced. The sideslip
causes a yawing moment to the right. If the dihedral stability is low, and yaw damping is small,
the directional stability keeps turning the aircraft while the continuing bank angle maintains the
sideslip and the yaw angle. As this spiral gets continuously steeper and tighter until finally, if
the motion is not checked a steep, high-speed, spiral dive results. The motion develops so
gradually, however that it is usually corrected unconsciously by the pilot, who may not be
aware that spiral instability exists.
- Spin: In a spin, one wing is sufficiently stalled and generates significant drag but little or no lift,
and the other is either not stalled or not stalled as fully as the other, and generates significant
lift. This causes the aircraft to autorotate due to the non-symmetric lift and drag. Spins are
characterized by high angle of attack, low airspeed, and high rate of descent.
Spins differ from spiral dives which are characterized by low angle of attack and high airspeed.
A spiral dive is not a type of stall because the wing is not stalled and the airplane will respond
to the pilot's inputs to the flight controls.

- Stability Augmentation:
With the computer in the control loop an airplane can be built to be naturally unstable. One of
the first examples of an unstable design was the X-29, shown in this slice. The computer
makes fast, tiny adjustments that allow the pilot to focus on other tasks. If the computer were
to fail, the airplane would instantly become uncontrollable to the pilot, with fatal consequences.

- Handling Qualities:
(1) “Stick free”: is a measure of how much force is required to make a certain change in a
control surface => sluggish or sporty
(2) “Control balance”: Suppose you have to put 5 lb on the control yoke for maximum roll but
30 lb for maximum pitch. This is an unbalanced control system. Ideally, 5 lb on the control yoke
should give roughly the same changes in both the roll and the pitch axis.
(3) “Adverse yaw”: Older airplanes had significant adverse yaw, so a pilot had to be diligent
with rudder pedals. A modern trainer hardly needs any rudder input to counter adverse yaw.
The improvement has come primarily through the use of dihedral and larger vertical stabilizers.
Older pilots consider this sloppy (lacking care) flying, but the realities of a modern trainer are
that rudder pedals are barely needed.
- Fly-by-wire: A fly-by-wire system is a control system where control actions are transmitted by
wire. The pilot inputs a command on the yoke, which is read by a computer. The computer
translates the command, along with its own inputs to augment stability, to an electrical signal. A
wire then connects the cockpit to various actuators, which convert the signal into a mechanical
action, like moving the elevator.


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Aircraft Stability and Control – Atmosphere, Airplane Nomenclatures

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 1

Basic definitions (1/8)

- Many pressure gages indicate the difference

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 2

Basic definitions (2/8)

- Is an abstract concept but can be thought of as

- The temperatures are measured using the

The altitude (h) used in ISA standard

- The temperature of atmosphere varies

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 3

Basic definitions (3/8)

From the equation of state, it can be seen that

For vehicles that are flying at approximately 100

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 4

Basic definitions (4/8)

- Viscosity can be thought of as the internal

- For temperatures below 3000 K, the dynamic

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 5

Basic definitions (5/8)

Incompressible subsonic flow 0 < M < 0.3

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 6

Basic definitions (6/8)

- For air, the earth’s mean atmosphere

where: B = 0.0065 K/m; To = 288.15 K

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 7

Basic definitions (7/8)

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 8

Basic definitions (8/8)

Bernoulli’s equation for a compressible fluid:

- If the flow can be assumed to be isentropic,

- For perfect gas,

P0: stagnation pressure

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 9

The atmosphere (1/2)

- Troposphere: 11000 m  h  20000 m

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 10

The atmosphere (2/2)

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 11

Aerodynamic Nomenclature (1/3)

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 12

Aerodynamic Nomenclature (2/3)

- The forces acting on an airplane in flight

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 13

Aerodynamic Nomenclature (3/3)

- The angle of attack and sideslip can be

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 14

Aircraft Instruments (1/4)

- The Pitot static system of an airplane is

- The difference between total and static

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 15

Aircraft Instruments (2/4)

- At high speeds, the Pitot static probe must

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 16

Aircraft Instruments (3/4)

- VIAS: Indicated airspeed. Airspeed indicated by the airspeed instrument.

- VEAS: Equivalent airspeed. Calibrated airspeed corrected for compressibility.

- VTAS: True airspeed. Equivalent airspeed corrected for density altitude.

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 17

Aircraft Instruments (4/4)

- Barometer: is an instrument used to measure the atmosphere pressure

- Temperature altitude: is the altitude in the standard atmosphere corresponding to the

Ngô Khánh Hiếu 18