Program : BE (Aerospace Engineering)

AIRCRAFT STABILITY & CONTROL

Aero-322 (3-0)
Aero 322: AIRCRAFT STABILITY & CONTROL

Directional Stability & Control

Chapter 2, Section 2.6, 2.7

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 Recall
• Yawing moment – moment about z-axis
– Denoted by N, Cn
– Nose moment to the right is +ve

• Sideslip angle  : Angle between V and its sideward

velocity component v
– Sideslip angle to the right is +ve

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 Definition of Directional Stability
• Also called Weathercock stability –
nose into the wind is general
equilibrium condition
– Zero sideslip is equilibrium

• Stability about z-axis : after a +

yawing disturbance, a statically
stable airplane should tend to
return to remove yaw and restore
equilibrium

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 Definition of Directional Stability
• Hence for stability we need
Cn>0
• Trim is generally zero 

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 Contribution of Aircraft Components
• Just like Longitudinal Stability, Aircraft components
independently contribute towards directional stability
• Fuselage and nacelles create destabilizing contribution
to Directional Stability
• Fuselage contribution is influenced by wing geometry
and placement and is given by

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Estimation of kn

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Estimation of kRl

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 Wing Contribution
• Contribution of Wing is relatively smaller than the
fuselage contribution especially for lower angles of
attack
• Wing contribution is mainly because of
– Wing dihedral - G
– Wing Sweep - L+

Γ
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 Ventral Fin
• Directional stability is provided by vertical fin just as horizontal
tails provided longitudinal stability for conventional A/C design
When  is +ve, force is generated,
which tends to rotate a/c about cg into
wind to remove , given by

𝒀𝒗
𝒍𝒗

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 Ventral Fin
• When  is +ve, force is generated, which
tends to rotate a/c about cg into wind to
remove , given by

– Where
– ( is the sidewash angle just as downwash at
horizontal tail. This sidewash is caused by
flow disturbance from wing and fuselage)

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 Static Directional Stability
• Moment produced by vertical tail

– Where is the moment arm of the tail

– In coefficient form (divide by ), the moments are

– Where is the vertical tail volume coefficient and is ratio of

dynamic pressures
– Differentiating wrt  to get stability parameter Cn

– which is what we need to be +ve to achieve static directional

stability (recall very close similarity with horizontal tail case
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 Static Directional Stability

𝑪 𝒏 𝒗=𝑽𝒗  𝒗 𝑪 𝑳 𝒗(𝟏+𝒅 /𝒅 )

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 Directional Control
• Control is through Rudder installed at the trailing
edge of vertical tail
• Size of rudder is defined by directional control
requirements
• Deflected rudder creates yawing moment (+ve
rudder deflection produces +ve side force
produces –ve yawing moment)
=
Where the side force

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 Directional Control

• In terms of yawing moment coefficient

• is the rudder control effectiveness (defined similar to

long control)

• Which is the rudder control power (note exact similarity

with elevator control power and effectiveness

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 Directional Control

Where

Factor can be estimated from fig 2.21

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 Requirements for Rudder Design
Rudder req Implication for rudder design
In a bank, if ailerons oppose the yaw, it is called
Adverse as adverse yaw. Rudder should overcome it for
Yaw a coordinated turn. Slow flight is a critical
condition

Crosswind To maintain alignment with runway in a

Landings crosswind condition, requires flight at a sideslip
angle. Rudder must be capable of trimmed
flight in crosswinds conditions

Asymmetric In multiengine aircraft, if one engine fails,

power rudder must be capable to handle the yawing
condition moment
Rudder is the primary control for spin
Spin (aggravated stall & yaw) recovery. It must be
recovery powerful enough to oppose spin rotation
(autorotation-corkscrew path)

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 Spin
(Autorotation is
shown)

Basic form of eqn for

directional stability and
control can be generalized
as:

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 Conclusion
• We talked about
– Static Directional Stability & Control Chapter 2, Text book
• Next time
– Roll Stability Chapter 2, Text book

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