J.

Peraire
Unied Engineering
Spring 2002
Lecture D6 - Aircraft Static Longitudinal Stability

In this lecture, we will consider an idealized wing-tail conguration in steady level ight and establish the
conditions for longitudinal equilibrium and stability.

Problem Geometry

The wing and the tail are set at an incidences, iw and it , respectively, with respect to the zero lift line of
the aircraft. The distance between the aerodynamic centers of the wing and the tail is denoted by lt , and
the distance between the wing's aerodynamic center and the center of mass, by xCM . The aircraft is set at
an incidence  and therefore, the relative wind comes at an angle w for the wing. As the wing produces
upwards lift, it generates a downward de ection of the air by a downwash angle . Taking into account this
downwash angle as well as the dierence incidence setting for the tail, the angle of attack of the tail is,

t = w

 + it iw :

The downwash angle is proportional to the lift generated, which in turn is proportional to w ,

 =  w :
The value of  depends on the geometry and is usually in the range 0:3 and 0:5. Therefore,

t = (1  )w + it iw :

Equilibrium
Force Equilibrium
We shall assume small angles, in which case, the conditions for force equilibration will require that the thrust
equals the drag,

T = D;
1

(1)

and that the total lift, equals the aircraft's weight,

L = Lw + Lt = W :
In practice, the tail lift, Lt , is much smaller than the lift carried by the wing, Lw , and therefore we have,

Lw  W:
Note, that for a given geometry (aw ; Sw ), and speed (v ), this condition determines the wing's angle of attack

w (and also the aircraft's angle of attack, since  = w

iw ),

CLw  aw w =

W
:
qSw

(2)

Here, CLw , is the wing's lift coecient; q = (1=2)v 2 , is the dynamic pressure; Sw , is the wing area; and
aw = @CLw =@w .

Moment Equilibrium
We now want to calculate the moment of all the forces with respect to the center of mass. Here, we will
make a few more approximations. We shall assume that the moment of the thrust and drag forces about
the CM , is much smaller than the moment of the lift forces. There are two reasons for that. First, the drag
(and thrust) is much smaller than the lift { recall that L=D is typically in the range 10

20. Second, the

drag (and the thrust) act through very small arms, and thus create small moments, because their line of
action is usually be very close to the CM .
In addition, we will further neglect the pitching moment of the tail about its aerodynamic center, since it
will usually be very small. With these simplications, we have,

MCM

 xCM Lw + Mw

(lt

xCM )Lt = 0 :

or, dividing through by qSw c,

x
St lt xCM
CMCM  CM CLw + CMw
CLt = 0 ;
c
Sw
c
which is in non-dimensional form. Here, c, is the wing chord and St , the tail area. Since, CLw = aw w , and
CLt = at (w (1  ) + it iw ),
CMCM
aw

xCM
c

St lt xCM at
C
S l xCM at
(1  ) w + Mw + t t
(i
Sw
c
aw
aw
Sw
c
aw w

This equation can be viewed as a determination of the angle iw

it ) = 0 :

(3)

it , which in turn determines t , and Lt .

Stability
The above conditions 1, 2 and 3, guarantee that the aircraft will be in equilibrium. In order for this
equilibrium to be stable, we have one additional condition, namely, @CMCM =@ < 0. From the expression
for CMCM in equation 3, we have that

xCM St lt xCM at
(1  ) < 0 :
c
Sw
c
aw
Note, that since  + iw = w , @CMCM =@ = @CMCM =@w .
The above inequality can be written as

xCM

lt
<
c
1+ c

 xCMmax
;
c

with  =

where  will typically be a small number compared to 1, e.g.

St at
(1  );
Sw aw

 0:1.

(4)

The above expression denes the

location of the neutral point xCMmax , which can be thought of as the aerodynamic center of the aircraft.
This inequality implies that the CM has to be located ahead of the neutral point for the aircraft to be stable
in pitch.
Using the denition of the the neutral point, the moment equilibrium condition 3, can be re-written as

x

CMmax

xCM

C
S l x
at
w = Mw + t t CM
(i
aw
Sw
c
aw w

it ) :
(5)
c
The quantity (xCMmax xCM )=c, is often referred to, as the static margin, and has to be greater than zero
for stability. From the above expression, we see that, since the static margin has to be positive, w > 0 for
lift generation, and CMw is typically negative, this implies that iw it has to be greater than zero. That is,
the tail must be set at a smaller incidence than the wing, and for wings with large negative CMw , this may
require the wing to produce negative lift, and more generally, the tail can not carry much of the lift load for
this airplane conguration.

Wing-Canard Congurations

In this conguration, the horizontal stabilizer is placed ahead of the wing. All of the above expressions apply,
if we consider that lt and xCM are negative. The stability condition 4 implies that xCM has to be more
negative than the neutral point xCMmax , that is, ahead of it (just as in the conventional case). Looking at
5, since lt < 0, we now require iw

it < 0, that is, the canard must be at a higher incidence than the wing.

Thus, we see that the canard will carry a positive lift thus giving a better load sharing. A further advantage
of the canard is that, since it is ahead of the wing, it is not subject to downwash interference. Canards are
used in some airplanes but they have other inconvenient attributes, such as early stall, due to the higher
angle of attack, that prevent them from being more popular.
EXAMPLE [1]
Consider a generic light aircraft, with the following characteristics:
3

Sw = 15 m2
St = 2:3m2
m = 1050 kg
aw = 5 rad 1
at = 4 rad 1
v = 50m/s

c = 1:6 m
lt = 4 m
 = 0:45
CMw = 0:07
 = 1kg/m2

The implied lift coecient for level ight (neglecting the tail contribution) is,

CLw =

mg
= 0:549;
qSw

which occurs at an angle of attack of w = CLw =aw = 0:11 rad = 6:3o .

The neutral point can be computed from equation 4, and is equal to xCMmax = 0:42 m (assuming that

1 +   1). Suppose that the actual loading of the aircraft is such that we place the CM half way between
the wing AC and the neutral point, i.e. xCM = 0:21m.

it = 0:093 rad = 5:3o. This would be achieved by trimming the tail

to the correct it , probably with trim aps. The tail angle of attack is t = 0:0325 rad = 1:9o , and the
tail generates a negative lift of Lt = 374N, which should be added to the lift already carried by the wing
of 1050  9:8 = 10; 290N.
Then, from expression 5, we obtain iw

References
[1] M. Martinez-Sanchez, Unied Engineering Notes, Course 95-96.
[2] B. Etkin and L.D. Reid, Dynamics of Flight, Stability and Control, Third Edition, Wiley, 1996.