Aircraft Stability and

Control (TR3039)

A.Y. 2022/2023

Lecturer(s):
Angelo Lerro ([email protected])
Stefano Primatesta ([email protected])
Introduction
Lecture 1

2
Table of contents
• Atmosphere (section 1.5)
• Nomenclature (section 1.6)
• Reference frame
• Forces and moments
• Aircraft instruments (section 1.7)
• Airspeed indicator
• Altimeter
• Rate of climb indicator
• Machmeter
• Flow angle indicators

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Atmosphere
Aerostatics deals with the state of a gas at rest
Aerodynamics (or gas dynamics) studies the motion of a gas

• Atmosphere is a gaseous envelope surrounding the planet.

• The dry air composition at sea level is:
• 78% nitrogen (N2)
• 21% oxygen (O2)
• Remaining small portion (1%) is made up of other
elements
• Air density is directly connected to the air composition and
water vapour
• Atmosphere is composed by various (4 for us) layers:
• Troposphere (important for atmospheric flight)
• Stratosphere (important for atmospheric flight)
• Ionosphere
• Exosphere

• Air is a heavy gas (pressure) 4

Atmosphere • Atmoshpere characteristics change with time and latitude
• In 1952 ICAO defined same “standard” characteristics
• Troposphere:
• Linear change of the temperature
• Up to 10 km (~33,000 ft)
• Stratosphere
• Constant temperature (up to 20 km - ~33,000 ft)
• Up to 50 km (~164,000 ft)
• Most of our studies are within the troposphere where the air
properties can be calculated starting from the properties at sea
level:
• Pressure, 101325 Pa (1013.25 mBar, 2116.2 lb/ft2, 29.92 in Hg,
760 mm Hg)
• Density, 1.225 kg/m3 (2.377E-3 slug/ft3)
• Temperature, 288.15°K (15 °C, 518.69°R)
• The air is assumed to be a perfect gas, the equation of state is:
• 𝑃 = 𝜌𝑅𝑇, where R = 287 m2/°K/s2 (1718 ft lb/slug/°R ) 5
Atmosphere
• We can assume that Earth is a sphere as first approximation
(constant radius 𝑅0 = 6371 𝑘𝑚)
• We can define 3 different altitudes:
• Geometric (altitude from sea level): ℎ𝐺
• Absolute: ℎ𝑎 = ℎ𝐺 + 𝑅0
• Geopotential (assuming that the gravity acceleration is
𝑅
constant): ℎ = 0 ℎ𝐺
(*) WGS 84 - Geoid undulation
𝑅0 +ℎ𝐺 in pseudocolor, shaded
relief and vertical exaggeration (10,000
• Difference between ℎ𝐺 and ℎ are negligible up to 15 km scale factor).
(~50,000 ft)

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Nomenclature – Reference Frame
• In Flight Mechanics we solve differential equations in
vectorial form that, hence, have a general validity and not
related to the reference frame chosen to represent those
equations.
• Vector and matrix will be denoted with bold letters.
• Why is it important to define the reference frame? Can I
𝑑𝑽
solve 𝑭 = 𝑚𝒂 = 𝑚 in any reference frame?
𝑑𝑡
(*) da Modern Flight Dynamics, Schmidt

• The atmospheric flight is governed by external aerodynamic, thrust and gravitational forces and
T T
moments acting on the plane, respectively (𝑭a = 𝑋, 𝑌, 𝑍 T , 𝑭𝑝 = 𝑇𝑥 , 𝑇𝑦 , 𝑇𝑧 , 𝑭𝑔 = 𝑊𝑥 , 𝑊𝑦 , 𝑊z )
• Where do we measure forces and moments? Let’s think about the lift force…
• There are two main reference frames
1. Inertial (no accelerations, no angular rates)
2. Body fixed
Intermediate (e.g. a reference frame on Earth surface)
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Nomenclature
𝑏

CG

𝑞 ℱ𝐵 𝑢
𝑍𝐿 We can define:
𝛼𝑍𝐿
𝛼 • Angle of attack, 𝛼 = tan−1
𝑤
𝑦𝐵 𝑥𝐵 𝑢
𝑤
𝛽 𝑣
𝑝 • Angle of sideslip, 𝛽 = sin−1
𝑉
𝑣
𝒗 • Velocity magnitude (true airspeed,

𝑟 TAS), 𝑉 = 𝑢2 + 𝑣 2 + 𝑤 2
𝑧𝐵 • Mean aerodynamic chord, 𝑐 =
2 𝑏/2 2 𝑆
‫𝑐 ׬‬ 𝑦 𝑦≠ where S is the wing
𝑆 0 𝑏

surface. 8
Nomenclature – Reference Frame
1 1
• Let’s define dynamic pressure, 𝑄 = 𝜌𝑉 2 = 𝜌𝑠𝑙 𝑉𝐸𝐴𝑆
2
2 2

Where we introduced the equivalent airspeed defined as, 𝑉𝐸𝐴𝑆 = 𝐸𝐴𝑆 = 𝑉 𝜎

Where 𝜎 = 𝜌/𝜌𝑠𝑙

• In a body reference frame, we can define

• Axial force, 𝑋 = 𝐶𝑥 𝑄𝑆
• Side force, 𝑌 = 𝐶𝑦 𝑄𝑆
• Normal force, 𝑍 = 𝐶𝑧 𝑄𝑆
• Rolling moment, 𝐿 = 𝐶𝑙 𝑄𝑆𝑏
• Pitching moment, 𝑀 = 𝐶𝑚 𝑄𝑆𝑐
• Yawing moment, 𝑁 = 𝐶𝑛 𝑄𝑆𝑏

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Conceptual Question

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Aircraft instruments – Airspeed indicator
From Bernoulli’s equation, we know that for an incomprissble flow
1
𝑃0 = 𝑃∞ + 𝜌𝑉 2 = 𝑃∞ + 𝑄
2
Where, 𝑃0 is the stagnation pressure (pressure where the flow comes to rest), 𝑃∞ is the free-
stream pressure (far away from the body).
Therefore, the true airspeed can be calculated as
2 𝑃0 − 𝑃∞ 2𝑄
𝑉= =
𝜌 𝜌

In case of compressible flow, Bernoulli’s equation is different and the true airspeed can be
expressed as:
𝛾−1 𝛾−1
2𝑎2 𝑃0 𝛾 2𝑎2 𝑄 𝛾
𝑉= −1 = 1+ −1
𝛾−1 𝑃∞ 𝛾−1 𝑃∞

Where 𝑎 is the speed of sound 𝑎 = 𝛾𝑅𝑇.

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Aircraft instruments – Airspeed indicator
Whatever is the flight regime, to measure the airspeed we need to measure both the
stagnation pressure (or total pressure) 𝑃0 and the static pressure 𝑃∞ or, alternatively 𝑄,
along with the density (or temperature, keep in mind that 𝑃 = 𝜌𝑅𝑇)

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Aircraft instruments – Altimeter
Considering the standard atmosphere, we know exactly how air properties changes with
the altitude. Therefore
• We can measure the ambient pressure to calculate the barometric altitude (necessary
for aircraft navigation but not performance!)
• We can measure the temperature to calculate the temperature altitude (rarely used)
• We can calculate (not measure!) from 𝑃 = 𝜌𝑅𝑇 the air density to calculate the density
altitude (necessary for aircraft performance)

For example, air corridors are vertically

separated of 2,000 ft (or 1,000 ft in RVSM -
Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum abouve
FL290).

An aircraft can be assigned the FL150, flight

level 15,000 ft), what’s the closest one?

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Aircraft instruments – Rate of climb indicator
• It measures the rate of change of static pressure.
• It only gives you an indication of the vertical speed as it is often affected by external
disturbances

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Aircraft instruments – Machmeter
• It measures the Mach number defined as
𝑉 𝑉
𝑀= =
𝑎 𝛾𝑅𝑇
• Do you need to measure the temperature to measure the Mach number?
𝛾−1
2𝑎2 𝑄
• From Bernoulli’s equation we know that V = − 1 , so
𝛾
1+
𝛾−1 𝑃∞

𝛾−1
2 𝑄 𝛾
M= 1+ −1
𝛾−1 𝑃∞

• Be careful when you fly at transonic or supersonic speed:

You can use the Rayleigh Pitot tube formula (Eq. 1.85)
where we assume that the free-stream static pressure 𝑃1
is somehow measured.
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Aircraft instruments - Flow angle indicators
• They are used to measure the angle of attack 𝛼 and the angle of sideslip 𝛽 (rarely used).
• Flight test usually adopts Pitot-boom with flow vanes and/or multi hole Pitot probe

• For operative aircraft you can find essentially:

Flow angle vanes Multi-hole probe Slotted probe

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