ENG1002 - Aerospace Engineering 1 Aerodynamic Performance

ENG1002 - Aerospace Engineering 1

Aerodynamic Performance

Dr Ian Taylor

This section of the Aerospace Engineering 1 lecture course provides introductory material on the
fundamentals of the Aerodynamic Performance and Characteristics of aircraft and flight. Much of this
information is fundamental to Aeronautics and is not just required for this lecture course, but will be used
in future courses throughout the degree. There are three main sections to this part of the course: firstly
a summary of basic aerodynamics and fundamental definitions that will be used; secondly a summary of
the aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft and assessment of aircraft performance; finally a brief
introduction to aircraft stability.

1 Basic Aerodynamics

To begin the course, it is important to provide a number of key aspects and definitions for the
aerodynamics of aircraft and in this section, fundamentals of the aerodynamics, characteristics and
performance of aircraft will be presented. Firstly there are a number of key definitions and terminology
that need to be presented which will be important to know and understand. These will be commonly
used within aeronautics and are important not just in this course but throughout the degree and in any
study of aerodynamics.

1.1 Frame of Reference

There are three orthogonal 1 (right-handed) 2 axes defined for the aircraft with motion about each axis
defined as follows (Fig. 1) :
Lateral : the axis from wing tip to wing tip.
The motion about the lateral axis is Pitch, nose of aircraft moves up or down.

Longitudinal : the axis from nose to tail of the aircraft.

The motion about the longitudinal axis is Roll, wing tips move up or down.

Vertical : the axis from top to bottom of the aircraft.

The motion about the vertical axis is Yaw, nose of aircraft moves left or right.
Additionally, the axes move with the aircraft, so for example if the aircraft pitches up, the axes also pitch
up rather than being at fixed orientation, and similarly for motion in the other directions (Fig. 2).

1.2 Aerodynamics and Aerofoils

There are some important terminology that describes the geometry and orientation of the aerofoil section
as illustrated in Fig. 3:
1
Orthogonal means axes are at right angles to each other.
2
“Right-handed” means the axis are oriented in the same manner as the thumb and first two fingers on your right hand.

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Figure 1: Illustration of Frames of Reference and Rotation Directions.

Figure 2: Rotation of axes with aircraft motion.

Leading edge : foremost (front) edge of the aerofoil.

Trailing edge : rearmost (back) edge of the aerofoil.

Chord : the straight line connecting the leading and trailing edges. This is often used as the notional
“geometric” line of the aerofoil.

Angle of attack : the angle the chord of the aerofoil makes with the direction of flight, or the relative
wind direction. Angle of attack is usually denoted by the symbol, α.

Lift : the aerodynamic force on the aerofoil in the direction perpendicular to the relative wind
direction.

Drag : the aerodynamic force on the aerofoil in the direction parallel to the relative wind direction.

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Figure 3: Aerofoil Terminology.

There are a number of different angles that need to be considered to define the aircraft orientation during
flight. Fig. 4 illustrates an aircraft flying at an angle to the horizontal, and also at a slight angle relative to
the direction of flight. The angles are defined as:
Pitch angle, θ : the angle between the aerofoil chord and the horizontal (x) axis.

Angle of attack, α : angle between the aerofoil chord and the direction of flight (or relative wind
direction), as defined earlier in Fig. 3.

Flight path angle, γ : the angle between the flight direction (i.e. relative wind direction) and the
horizontal axis.
Note, the angle of attack is not necessarily the same as the pitch angle.

Figure 4: Illustration of angles defining aircraft orientation.

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1.3 Non-dimensional Coefficients

It is common in engineering to use dimensionless parameters or non-dimensional coefficients to assess

performance. These coefficients offer an easy and convenient way of directly comparing different
designs performing at different operating conditions. For example non-dimensionalisation is useful when
comparing the performance of different sizes of aircraft, flying at different speeds and altitudes. Instead
of comparing the actual lift force generated by the wings, measured in Newtons (N ), or similarly the
actual drag force on the aircraft, it is convenient to non-dimensionalise these forces to give lift and drag
coefficients 3 , CL and CD (Eq. 1).

L
Lift Coefficient : CL = 1 2
2 ρU S
(1)
D
Drag Coefficient : CD = 1 2
2 ρU S

where L is the lift force (N ), D is the drag force (N ), ρ is the local air density (kg/m3 ), U is the true air
speed of the aircraft (m/s) and S is the wing planform area (m2 ). Lift and drag coefficients are
fundamental to aerodynamics so understanding and knowing these expressions is important. Note that
the term in the denominator, 21 ρU 2 is know as the dynamic pressure, with units N/m2 or Pascals P a.

(Consider units of the denominator: ρU 2 S ≡ kgm−3 .m2 s−2 .m2 ≡ kgms−2 ≡ N , i.e. units of Force).

1.4 Air speed.

The air speed of the aircraft can be considered a number of different ways, depending on what information
is required.

True Air Speed (TAS) : The actual relative speed of the aircraft to the air through which it is moving.
It is effectively the speed of the air moving over the wings.

Equivalent Air Speed (EAS) : The equivalent airspeed is the speed at sea level, (i.e. using sea level
air density, ρSL = 1.225 kg/m3 ), that would give the same dynamic pressure as that produced by
the TAS at the altitude at which the aircraft is flying. Hence the EAS is determined from the TAS,
scaled by a density ratio using r
ρ
EAS = T AS (2)
ρSL

Indicated Air Speed (IAS) : The indicated air speed is the speed that is shown in the cockpit on
flight instruments. For an aircraft at 0◦ angle of attack and flying at constant altitude, this will be the
same as the EAS. When performing flight manoeuvres and flying at different angles of incidence, a
different IAS will be shown.

1.5 Control surfaces

Control surfaces are parts of the aircraft, that can be actuated and utilised to manoeuvre and control the
aircraft attitude and direction. The most common and usual devices are as follow (see Fig. 5):
3
Note that coefficients are non-dimensional and have no units

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Ailerons : The ailerons are located on the wings, usually towards the tips and are used to control
the roll motion of the aircraft about the longitudinal axis.

Elevators : The elevators are located on the horizontal stabiliser / tail-plane at the rear of the aircraft.
These surfaces are used to control the pitch motion of the aircraft about the lateral axis.

Rudder : The rudder is located on the vertical stabiliser and is used to control the yaw motion about
the vertical axis.

Figure 5: Aerofoil Control Surfaces and High-Lift Devices.

The control surfaces illustrated in Fig. 5 are primarily used to control the direction and motion of the
aircraft, and are used throughout the flight. In addition to these control surfaces, high lift devices can also
be incorporated on the aircraft for temporary actuation for particular parts of the flight, usually take-off or
landing where the speed of the aircraft is low. Such devices are often used for low speed or high angle of
attack flight. Typical high lift devices are (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6)
Leading Edge Slats : devices that extend from the leading edge of the wing to adjust the relative
angle of attack of the wing and provide an increase in lift (Fig. 6a).

Trailing Edge Flaps : devices that extend from the trailing edge of the wing to give a change in
effective angle of the aerofoil chord-line, thus providing an increase in lift (Fig. 6b).

Leading edge slats and trailing edge flaps both provide a temporary increase in lift. For level flight (which
implies constant lift), the leading edge slats tend to increase the aircraft angle of attack, whereas the
trailing edge flaps will tend to reduce the angle of attack. However, real flight conditions are more complex
and when these devices are deployed, the aircraft will usually be changing altitude and speed (i.e. take-off
and landing manoeuvres) and the behaviour will not be as simplistic as described above.

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(a) Leading Edge Slats.

(b) Trailing Edge Flaps.

Figure 6: Examples of high lift devices.

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2 Aircraft Performance

A number of measures of aircraft performance can be defined which allow flight characteristics to be
assessed and provide important parameters for the design process.

2.1 Lift-Drag Ratio

This defined as the ratio between the lift force generated by the aircraft and the drag force experienced as
it flies, and is termed the lift-drag ratio. This ratio is also commonly called the glide ratio. This parameter
is one of the key design criteria for aircraft, influencing the flight characteristics and also the fuel efficiency
of the aircraft. Note, that from the definition of the lift and drag coefficients above, we have

Lift L CL
Lift-Drag Ratio : = = (3)
Drag D CD

2.2 Gliding Flight

We shall consider the special case of an aircraft that is in gliding flight, as it allows a number of
performance criteria to be determined. When an aircraft is gliding, there is no thrust provided by the
engines, and with decreasing altitude but constant air speed, the flight path angle, termed the glide
angle, γ, will be less than 0◦ . As illustrated in Fig. 7, the aircraft is flying with a velocity U in the direction
of flight. The angle of attack between the aircraft and the flight direction (i.e. angle of air meeting wings
due to pitch of the aircraft) is defined as α, the angle between the aircraft orientation and the horizontal
is the pitch angle, θ, and the angle between the flight direction and the horizontal is the glide angle, γ.
From these definitions and Fig. 7, it is clear that

glide angle = angle of attack + pitch angle

(4)
⇒ γ =α+θ

Figure 7: Illustration and definition of parameters and angles associated with gliding flight.

It should be intuitive that the for lower values of the glide angle, the aircraft will be able to travel further
before reaching the ground (i.e. lower angle means larger horizontal component of velocity). Hence,
to maximise the range of gliding flight, the glide angle needs to be minimised. As we have assumed

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constant speed flight, by considering the equilibrium of forces on the aircraft, and resolving horizontally,
we get
L sin γ = D cos γ
Hence, by rearranging, it can be shown that the glide angle can be related to the lift-drag ratio:

D 1 1
tan γ = =L = CL/CD
(5)
L /D

Therefore, and indicated above, to minimise the glide angle, γ, the lift-drag ratio needs to be maximised.
As a consequence of this relationship, the lift-drag ratio is also often called the glide ratio.
CL
Glide Ratio, E =
CD
Under gliding flight, the aircraft will move forward a certain horizontal distance, s, whilst it will descend a
certain vertical distance, h. The glide ratio is formally defined as the ratio of the horizontal distance to the
vertical distance, s/h, and using trigonometry (Fig. 8) it can be shown that this is the same as the lift-drag
ratio.

Figure 8: Illustration of range of aircraft during gliding flight.

Figure 9: Illustration of gliding velocity, UD and rate of descent, ḣ, of an aircraft during gliding flight.

The glide range, R, is the distance travelled by the aircraft until it reaches the ground plane (Fig. 8).
Similarly, to maximise the glide range the lift-drag ratio needs to be maximised and noting that tan γ =
∆h/R, using Eq. 5, it can be shown that the maximum range, Rmax is given by
 
L
Rmax = (h1 − h2 ) (6)
D max

where h1 and h2 are respectively the initial and final altitudes of the flight.

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Assuming the glide angle is SMALL, then we can find the corresponding gliding speed at the minimum
glide angle. Referring back to Fig. 7, resolving the forces in the directions parallel and perpendicular to
the direction of flight gives D = W sin γ and L = W cos γ respectively where W is the aircraft weight
acting vertically downwards. The small angle assumption means these simplify to D ≈ 0 and L ≈ W .
Hence using Eq. 1, we can write
1
W ≈ L = CL . ρU 2 S
2
and rearranging, the gliding speed is found to be:
s
2W
UD = (7)
ρSCL

Similarly, from Fig. 9 and using Eq. 7, the rate of descent of the aircraft, ḣ is
s
2W
ḣ = UD sin γ = sin γ (8)
ρSCL

2.3 Drag Polar

The total drag force on an aircraft during flight is made up from a number of elements, though there are
two main components:
Profile Drag CD0 : This is also sometimes termed the Form drag. This drag term is a pressure
drag due to the shape of the aircraft. During flight, the aircraft body is pushing on the air as it
moves forward thus creating a drag force. The larger the frontal cross sectional area, then the
larger this force will be. For a modern streamlined aircraft fuselage, this force is usually relatively
low. Importantly, the force due to the Profile drag increases as the flight speed increases (Fig. 10).
A higher speed implies more “push” on the air as the aircraft moves forward, hence giving higher
drag.

Lift Induced Drag, kCL2 : This is the drag due to the generation of lift from the aircraft wings. In
general terms, the wings will change the direction of the air to generate lift and this change in
direction implies a change in local velocity of the air. To change the direction and velocity of the air
requires a force to be applied to the fluid thus generating the lift component, but this force also
induces a drag component on the aircraft. As we shall see later, the generation of vortices at the
wing tips also induce a drag force on the aircraft due to the air direction change as the vortices are
formed. As the flight speed increases, it is “easier” to generate lift, and hence the lift induced drag
becomes lower at higher speeds (Fig. 10). The non-dimensional parameter factor k is the lift
dependent drag factor.

The combination of the profile drag and the lift induced drag gives an important equation for the Total
Drag coefficient, called the “Drag Polar Equation”.

Total Drag = Profile Drag + Lift Induced Drag

(9)
CD = CD0 + kCL2

As the profile drag increases with flight speed and the lift induced drag decreases with flight speed, the
total drag has a minimum value at a particular flight speed (Fig. 10). Using the Drag Polar (Eq. 9), the

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Figure 10: Variation of total drag force on an aircraft with flight speed.

flight speed that gives the minimum drag or the “Minimum Drag Speed”, UM D , which can be shown to be
given by
 0.25 s
k 2W
UM D = (10)
CD0 ρS
Note that the ratio between the lift induced drag factor and the profile drag, k/CD0 is an important
parameter when determining the minimum drag speed. Also, note that UM D increases as the wing area,
S decreases.
For the maximum lift-drag ratio, the profile drag is equal to the lift induced drag, i.e.

Max Lift-Drag Ratio when CD0 = kCL2

As illustrated in Fig. 10, and can also be shown mathematically, the profile drag is the same as the lift
induced drag when the total drag is at a minimum.

Hence the flight speed that gives the maximum L/D is the same speed that gives the minimum
drag, UM D .

2.4 Important Flight speeds

A number of key flight speeds can be derived 4 , and are listed below:
Minimum Drag Speed (and speed for maximum L/D) :
 0.25 s
k 2W
UM D =
CD0 ρS
4
See supplement on Moodle for derivation of each speed.

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Speed for the “Minimum Drag to Speed Ratio” :

 0.25 s
k 2W
UD/U = 1.316 = 1.316UM D
CD0 ρS

Minimum Power Airspeed :

 0.25 s
k 2W
UM P = 0.760 = 0.760UM D
CD0 ρS

Speed for the “Minimum Power to Speed Ratio” :

 0.25 s
k 2W
UP/U = = UM D
CD0 ρS

These speeds are useful to categorise the performance of particular types of aircraft:

Jet Aircraft:

For a jet power aircraft, the fuel flow required for the engines is approximately proportional to the thrust
being produced. In steady (constant speed) flight, the thrust is equal to the aircraft drag, and therefore,
the fuel flow is also proportional to drag, ṁf ∝ D. The best Range will occur when the fuel flow is low
and the flight velocity is high. Hence, as fuel flow is proportional to drag, the best range occurs at the
speed where drag to speed ratio is at a minimum (i.e low drag and high speed give lowest ratio), hence

Ubest range, jet = UD/U = 1.316UM D

The best Endurance will occur at the speed where the fuel flow is at a minimum, as a lower fuel flow
implies the available fuel will last longer, and the aircraft will be able to spend a longer time in the air.
Again, as ṁf ∝ D, the best endurance speed will be when the drag is at a minimum, (i.e. minimum thrust
to give minimum fuel flow)
Ubest endur., jet = UM D

Propeller Aircraft:

For a propeller powered aircraft, the fuel flow required for the engines is proportional to the power, P ,
produced by the engine. Hence, in this case, ṁf ∝ P . The best Range will occur when the fuel flow is
low and the flight velocity is high. Hence, as fuel flow is proportional to the power, the best range occurs
at the speed where power to speed ratio is at a minimum, (i.e low power and high speed give lowest
ratio), hence
Ubest range, prop = UP/U = UM D
The best Endurance will occur at the speed where the fuel flow is at a minimum. Again, as ṁ ∝ P , the
best endurance speed will be when the power is at a minimum, (i.e. minimum power to give minimum
fuel flow), hence
Ubest endur., prop = UM P = 0.760UM D

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2.5 Maintaining Lift-Drag Coefficient During Cruise

During the cruise phase of a flight, it is assumed that the aircraft is travelling at constant speed and at
constant altitude, so that Thrust = Drag, and Lift = Weight. However, in reality, as fuel is burned during
flight, the weight of the aircraft is decreasing, so that for a given lift, the aircraft will tend to climb. Using
the lift coefficient (Eq. 1),
L W
CL = 1 2 = 1 2 (11)
2 ρU S 2 ρU S
and hence, we can see that as W decreases, the lift coefficient, CL will also decrease and move the
aircraft operation away from the best CL /CD point, i.e. the flight will be less optimal. To maintain the
aircraft operation at the best lift-drag coefficient, then CL must remain unchanged, as the drag coefficient
CD will be unchanged by the weight decrease. To maintain the same lift coefficient, then using Eq. 11 the
operation can be modified by either:
1. Reducing the flight speed, U

2. Reducing the air density, ρ by climbing to a higher altitude

3. A combination of reducing flight speed U and climbing to reduce density ρ.

Using Eq. 11, the reducing weight will give a reduction in necessary lift force required for constant speed,
level flight. By countering this through either reducing U and/or ρ, the lift coefficient, CL can be maintained
at the same value to keep the optimal lift-drag coefficient. The approach used to determine the necessary
changes in flight speed and altitude are illustrated separately in worked examples (available on Moodle
and also discussed in the lectures).
There are implications of flying at higher altitudes that also need to be considered. If the aircraft flight
speed, U , is unchanged, then the temperature decrease at higher altitude gives a lower speed of sound
(Eq. 12) and hence the aircraft will be operating at a higher Mach number. The increase in Mach number
will increase drag due to compressibility effects and may also cause shock waves when the critical Mach
number is reached. p
Speed of Sound : a = γRT
U U (12)
Mach No. : M = =√
a γRT
where T is the ambient temperature at the flight altitude (K), R is the Gas Constant (J/kgK) and γ is the
ratio of specific heats, CP /CV .
In addition, increasing altitude will decrease the Equivalent Airspeed, EAS (Eq. 2). For a given flight
speed, U , the higher altitude gives a lower density and hence reduces EAS. This is not usually a particular
issue, unless the climb continues to altitudes beyond that required to maintain the optimum CL /CD . In
this case the lift coefficient will increase due to the continued density decrease and thus requires an
increase in the angle of attack, α, to generate the additional lift, that may cause a stall even at high TAS,
U.

2.6 Effect of Drag Reduction on Performance.

From earlier, the minimum drag speed, UM D (Eq. 10) and the drag polar (Eq. 9) are given respectively by
 0.25 s
k 2W
UM D = and CD = CD0 + kCL2
CD0 ρS

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Figure 11: Lockheed U2 High-altitude reconnaissance aircraft : Service ceiling of 80, 000 f t ( ∼ 24, 000 m ). Cruise
Mach number 0.715 at 72, 000 f t.

One target of aircraft design is to try and minimise overall drag. From the drag polar, a reduction in drag
can be achieved by reducing the profile drag, CD0 or by reducing the lift induced drag factor, k. However,
from the expression for the minimum drag speed, reducing k will also reduce UM D (and all the other
performance speeds defined earlier) moving the aircraft closer to stall. Similarly, reducing the profile drag
will increase UM D and may eventually cause compressibility problems and shocks from higher Mach
numbers. Hence, the profile drag and lift-induced drag factor need to be optimised together, something
that is often not trivial.
The lift-induced drag factor is defined as :
1
k= (13)
πe AR
where e is the Oswald Efficiency factor for the wing (e < 1), and represents the ability or efficiency of a
wing to generate lift. AR is the aspect ratio of the aircraft wing defined as
b2
AR = (14)
S
where b is the wing span and S is the wing area (Fig. 12). Note that for a rectangular wing with chord
c, the area is given by S = b × c and hence the aspect ratio will be AR = b2/bc = b/c. From Eq. 13
increasing the aspect ratio will give lower values of k and hence reduce the total aircraft drag (assuming
CL is unchanged) and reduce the minimum drag speed, UM D . A higher aspect ratio or “larger” wing
means it is “easier” to generate lift, and the net effect is to reduce the lift induced drag factor, k.
Increasing AR can be undertaken by either increasing the wing span for a given area, or by reducing the
wing area for a given span. However reducing the wing area means there is less “lift generating” surface
that the wing is likely to produce less lift. Likewise, increasing wing span will lead to longer wings which
will increase bending moments at the wing root, increased loads and structural problems, higher weight
as well as potentially causing logistical problems taxiing and parking at airports. However, the “effective”
aspect ratio can be increased through alternative design approaches.

2.7 Winglets and Wing-Tip vortices.

Wing-tip vortices, as illustrated in Fig. 13, are generated as the airflow over the wing tends to move from
the lower surface where there is “high” pressure, to the upper surface where there is “low” pressure. This
leakage around the wing tip from lower to upper side of the wing causes a swirling motion which as the
wing moves forward through the air, produces a vortex downstream of the wing tip (Fig. 14).
A further effect is that as a result of this flow, the airflow beneath the wing has a spanwise (along the
wing) component towards the wing tip and above the wing has a spanwise component towards the wing

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Figure 12: Illustration of wing area and span used for determination of aspect ratio, AR.

root or fuselage (Fig. 14 and Fig. 15). This “spanwise” motion reduces the effective span of the wing that
is generating lift, thus effectively reducing the wing aspect ratio, AR. The effect of which is to both reduce
the lift generated and to increase the lift-induced drag factor, k and hence the overall drag.

Figure 13: Visualisation of wing-tip vortices from a large aircraft.

Remember from earlier that the lift induced drag component arises due to changes in direction of the air
to generate lift, and also due to the generation of vortices such as those at the wing tips. Hence, strong
wing tip vortices not only effectively reduce AR, but also increase the lift-induced drag, both of which
increase the overall drag. Hence, reduction of the size and strength of wing-tip vortices are important
for overall aircraft design and performance. Strong wing-tip vortices are also problematic and potentially
dangerous for aircraft flying downstream (Fig. 13).

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(a) Schematic of mechanism for wing-tip vortex formation. (b) Schematic of effect of wing-tip vortices on spanwise
flow over wing upper surface.

Figure 14: Formation and Mechanism for Wing-Tip Vortices (from “Boldmethod.com”).

Figure 15: Schematic illustrating the effect of wing-tip vortices spanwise flow on upper and lower wing surfaces.

Winglets or wing-tip fences are commonly used at the tips of aircraft wings and are designed to limit the
amount of leakage from the lower to upper surfaces, thus reducing the size and strength of the vortices
generated, as illustrated in Fig. 16. Typical approaches for these devices such as wing-tip fences and
raked wing tips are shown in Fig. 17. By reducing vortex strength, there is less local velocity changes
and so the lift induced drag coefficient and hence overall drag for the aircraft is reduced. In addition to
reducing the vortex strength, as the devices limit the flow leakage, they will also reduce the amount of
spanwise flow on the upper and lower surfaces, thus giving an effective increase in the wing aspect ratio.
This effective increase in AR means that a potentially lower wing span could be utilised resulting in lower
wing root bending moments.

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(a) Schematic illustrating the reduction in strength of the wing-tip vortex (b) Comparison of wing-tip
due to winglets. vortices, with and without winglets.

Figure 16: Effect of winglets / wing-tip fences on wing-tip vortices.

(a) Example of winglets implemented to reduce wing tip

vortices. (b) Example of raked wing tips used on the Boeing 787.

Figure 17: Different approaches and designs for mitigation of wing-tip vortices.

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3 Stability and Control

In this section, a brief summary of basic stability and control of aircraft is provided, with a summary of
definitions and a preliminary assessment of the stability criteria for aircraft.
Stability and Control of aircraft considers the time-varying or transient behaviour of the aircraft, and its
motion in response to a disturbance. Such disturbances could arise from atmospheric effects (gusts or
turbulence) or from a control surface input. The motion of the aircraft in response to the disturbance is
usually compared to a datum equilibrium state sometimes referred to as trim.
For steady flight, the forces on the aircraft must be in balance, and if the aircraft continues flying in
this state without any change of “control” input, then it is said to be trimmed. Detailed analysis of the
aircraft stability is complex with the transient nature of the response meaning the governing equations
characteristically involve differential terms. For this reason, full analysis of stability will not be considered
until much later in the degree.
It is important to consider the nature of the response to understand how stable or unstable the aircraft
is likely to be. The aircraft is termed stable, if the response dies away and the orientation of the aircraft
returns to its original undisturbed state (Fig. 18a). Conversely, an aircraft is unstable if the response
continues to grow following a disturbance (Fig. 18b).

(a) Example of the response to a disturbance for a Stable (b) Example of the response to a disturbance for an
aircraft. Unstable aircraft..

Figure 18: Illustration of stable and unstable response of aircraft to a disturbance.

Stability of an aircraft can be considered differently depending on the response:

Static Stability describes the tendency of an aircraft to return to the undisturbed state following a
disturbance.

Dynamic Stability indicates if the aircraft does actually return to the undisturbed state, i.e. finally
comes to rest in the initial undisturbed state.
Note that trim is different to static stability, though for steady flight, it is usually required for the aircraft
to be both trimmed and statically stable. Using these definitions and referring to Fig. 18, the response
in Fig. 18a illustrates a case that is both statically and dynamically stable. The case is statically stable
as the oscillatory motion means the aircraft has a tendency to keep returning to the initial value, zero.
Also, the motion is decaying so will eventually settle back to the initial zero value and is thus dynamically
stable.
On the other hand, the response in Fig. 18b is statically stable but is dynamically unstable. Again the
oscillatory motion means there is a tendency to return to the initial value, so it is hence statically stable.

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Figure 19: Illustration of statically and dynamically unstable response of an aircraft to a disturbance.

However, the increasing (diverging) amplitude of the response means that the aircraft will not finally settle
down to the initial value and hence it is dynamically unstable. Note also that this particular case illustrates
that stability does not necessarily imply dynamic stability.
A third case is shown in Fig. 19, which illustrates a response that is both statically and dynamically
unstable. In this case, the motion is not oscillatory so that there is no tendency for the aircraft to return
to the initial value and is thus statically unstable. As with the previous case, the response is gradually
increasing relative to the initial value and so the response is also dynamically unstable.
The different motions and stability criteria and how they relate to flight conditions are illustrated in Fig. 20
and Fig. 21. For equilibrium flight, the aircraft is trimmed and will continue to fly at the same condition
with no additional control input (Fig. 20). Also the effect of static instability on flight is illustrated and once
the aircraft experiences a disturbance that pitches the nose up, this unstable nature means the nose
continues to pitch upwards.

Figure 20: Illustration of equilibrium flight and static stability.

Similarly, different types of stability are illustrated in Fig. 21. In both of the conditions displayed, the
aircraft experiences a disturbance to pitch the nose of the aircraft upwards. Also, in both cases, the
aircraft tends to return back to its initial conditions (zero pitch) which indicates static stability. However,
in the first condition, the amplitude of the oscillatory motion that arises from the disturbance gradually

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reduces until the aircraft does finally reach the initial conditions, hence in that case it is also dynamically
stable. For the second case, the oscillation amplitude gradually increases and the aircraft does not return
to the original conditions and is thus dynamically unstable.

Figure 21: Illustration of static and dynamic stability.

Generally, the more stable an aircraft, then the less manoeuvrable it will be as the increased stability mean
the aircraft tends to return to the initial conditions, i.e. it is more difficult to move an aircraft away from
particular flight conditions. However, excessive stability is not desirable as it will become very difficult to
manoeuvre the aircraft. Conversely, a very manoeuvrable aircraft will be inherently less stable: as it is less
likely to want to return to initial conditions, it is easier to get the aircraft to change flight path/conditions.
Again, the aircraft should not be excessively unstable as it will become uncontrollable. The level of
stability will vary for different roles with passenger aircraft usually being very stable and military fighter
aircraft being much less stable due to the high manoeuvrability requirement.

(a) Passenger Aircraft: Design tends to be towards a (b) Fighter Aircraft: Needs to be highly manoeuvrable so
higher level of stability. design is biased towards a less stable aircraft.

Figure 22: Different tytpes of aircraft with different stability requirements.

Simple assessments can be made to assess the stability of an aircraft. For example, consider first the
aircraft illustrated in Fig. 23. In this case, the weight, W , acts at the centre of gravity, which is located
is ahead of the “aerodynamic centre” (the location at which the wing lift force acts). The lift force due to
the wings, LW , acts vertically upward and produces an ant-clockwise moment that will tend to pitch the

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ENG1002 - Aerospace Engineering 1 Aerodynamic Performance

Figure 23: Aircraft in horizontal flight with CoG ahead of aerodynamic centre.

aircraft nose-down. This is moment balanced by the horizontal stabiliser producing a downwards force,
Lt , that gives a clockwise moment. In this case, the forces are balanced and the aircraft is trimmed.
If there were now a disturbance to pitch the nose upwards (Fig. 24), the increased angle of attack would
give a higher lift from the wings, i.e. a higher anti-clockwise moment. Similarly the horizontal stabiliser
is now at a lower angle of attack, reducing Lt and hence reducing the clockwise moment. The net effect
is a “nose-down” moment to restore the aircraft to its original attitude. Hence, the aircraft in this case is
statically stable.

Figure 24: Nose-up attitude when CoG ahead of aerodynamic centre.

Now consider a slightly different case (Fig. 25) where the centre of gravity is behind (or downstream) of
the aerodynamic centre. In this case, the lift force, LW , will produce a clockwise moment that will tend to
pitch the nose of the aircraft upwards. For the aircraft to be trimmed, the horizontal stabiliser will need to
be configured to produce an upwards lift force, thus generating an anti-clockwise moment, to balance the
moment due to LW .

Figure 25: Aircraft in horizontal flight with CoG downstream of aerodynamic centre.

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If a disturbance now pitches the nose upwards (Fig. 26) then the angle of attack to both the wings and
the horizontal stabiliser increases, so that the lift forces LW and Lt both increase. However, the lift force
increase from the wings is likely to be much larger that that of the stabiliser. Hence the increase in
clockwise moment due to LW is likely to be bigger than the increase in anti-clockwise moment due to Lt .
The result is a net increase in clockwise moment that will pitch the aircraft nose upwards, i.e. push the
aircraft further away from the original configuration. In this case, the aircraft is statically unstable.

Figure 26: Nose-up attitude when CoG downstream of aerodynamic centre.

Summary
In reality the situation is much more complex than this and will include transient effects, the effects of
control surface actuation, aspects of airframe design and flexibility of the wings and fuselage. Additionally,
thrust and drag forces do not necessarily at “in-line” and will also contribute to stability. These will be
considered later in the degree programme, though the simplistic analysis summarised here provides a
fundamental basis for understanding aircraft stability.

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