Lection 13

Landing of an airplane

To land an airplane, it is transited to the gliding mode. The height is decreased while
in this mode. During gliding the thrust of engines is decreased to the lowest possible
thrust, so during calculation it is possible to assume thrust P 0 . After approaching to the
land surface, the trajectory of flight is being smoothed, transiting the airplane to a horizontal flight. Then, during some time the airplane is flying at the low height, approximately
parallel to the runway with steadily decreasing speed. This delay is necessary to make sure
the airplane will land at the lowest possible speed. At the end of delay the airplane lands
and does landing run on the runway until it stops. At this point the process of landing finishes. Schematically, stages of landing of an airplane are shown on Fig. 13.1.

Fig. 13.1
Lets define the initial moment of landing as the moment, corresponding to the position of the airplane at some safe height. The safe height is usually taken as
H safe 10.7 m . At the stage of gliding the speed of flight should exceed minimal speed

for some amount, because, firstly, it is necessary to have some reserve of speed to create g-

load at time of levelling; secondly, speed reserve is set because of flight safety requirements.
Velocity at the beginning of the holding stage comes out to be greater than minimal
and it will decrease at the holding stage as a result of braking effect of drag force X a of
the airplane. As speed decreases, to make the equality hold Ya G (the necessary condition of horizontal flight), it is the angle of attack that should be increased.
Increasing of the lift force coefficient C ya while increasing angle of attack is limited by the maximal value of C y a max . During the following increase of the angle of attack
the lift force Ya becomes less than weight G of the aircraft, because the continuing decrease of the speed is not compensated by increase of C ya and the condition of a horizontal flight Ya G is not carried out. The appeared difference G Ya will create acceleration, directed down, and the airplane gets vertical velocity V y , drops (this is called as pancaking) and, finally, touches land with its wheels. The component of the airplane speed at
the moment when pancaking ends, equal to speed at the moment when the aircraft touches
the surface of runway with its wheels, is called the landing speed.
During the following motion of the airplane on the surface of the runway the speed
decreases as a result of work done by drug force and friction between the wheels and runway surface. The speed of an airplane becomes equal to zero after whole kinetic energy is
absorbed by the work done by drag and friction.
Thus, the process of landing of an airplane consists of five stages:
1. Gliding from a given safe height
2. Flattening out
3. Holding
4. Pancaking
5. Running on a runway

Calculating the length of gliding, flattening out, holding and pancaking.

A separate calculation of lengths of gliding, landing flare, holding and pancaking

is possible but complicated because in all cases gliding and, at least part of landing
flare are performed at thrust, not equal to zero. A pilot sets its value, and it is hard to
find out the exact value, which should be used in calculations. Holding of the airplane
is done at small height, where influence of the land could change the drag sharply. The
value of drag force, which decreases speed, is different at holding along a horizontal
trajectory at 0.5m from the land surface and along slightly inclined trajectory, distant
from the land at 1.5 2m at the beginning of holding, and 0.25 0.5 m at the end of
holding. Following mentioned above, the separated calculation of lengths of gliding,
holding and pancaking does not make sense.
Therefore, calculation of total length of first four stages of landing of an airplane
makes sense to ground on a statistical processing of experimental data (flight tests).
Using the concept of energy of an airplane we obtain: the energy of an airplane
1 at the height 10.7m with speed of gliding V gl . , equals to

E1

mVgl2 .
2

10.7 G .

(13.1)

At the moment of contact of the wheels with the runway the energy E 2 equals
2
mVland
.
E2
.
2

(13.2)

Decrease of energy E 1 E 2 is because of work done by force X a av . on path L*

of motion of an airplane at stages of gliding, landing flare, holding and pancaking.
Thus,

L X a av .
*

Substituting X a av . PR as

2
m( V gl2 . Vland
.)

10.7 G .

G
, where K av . average lift-to-drag ratio value, we
K av .

obtain
2
V gl2 . Vland

L K av .
10.7 .

2g

(13.3)

Thus, to calculate L it is necessary to know the speed of gliding, landing speed

and K av . . If we know C y a gl . , it is easy to compute

Vgl .

2 mg
,
SC ya gl .

(13.4)

in assumption that flight pass angle is small. Usually, when manoeuvring for landing,
C ya gl . ( 0.6 0.7 )C ya max . Knowing C y a gl . , it is possible to find C xa by polar of the

airplane, and K, which we adopt as constant and equal to K av . .

Calculation of landing speed of an airplane

Great landing speed of an airplane complicates landing of the airplane. Besides, increase in landing speed causes increase of landing run length, which is undesirable.
It is easy to compute landing speed Vland . , knowing C y a land . , using formula

Vland .

2 mg
,
SC ya land .

(13.5)

where C y a land . coefficient C ya at the moment of contact of wheels and surface of runway. While calculating C y a land . , it is necessary to take into account influence of high lift
devices of the wing and influence of land on the value of lift force coefficient (Fig.13.2).

Fig.13.2
It could be seen from the picture, that for the angles of attack less than critical value,
presence of land significantly exceeds C ya . This takes place as with deflected, as with
undeflected split flaps. Also, with deflected split flap st . decreases rapidly and C y a max
of the wing drops too. With undeflected split flap it is possible to assume that vicinity of
land does not have that strong influence on C y a max (with accuracy up to 5%) and decreases only st . . Less strong influence of land on C y a max of the wing with undeflected
split flap, than on C y a max of the wing with deflected split flap could be explained with
the fact that the airfoil of the wing with deflected split flap is streamed as an airfoil with
very high curvature. The positive pressure gradient on upper surface for such airfoil is
very high. Its variation, caused by land surface influence, leads to the wing stall which is
more possible than for the wing with undeflected split flap. From the figure one could also
notice the influence of high lift devices on the wing lift force coefficient.
Taking into account the influence of the land on C ya and C y a max mentioned
above, it is possible to write two different expressions for the landing speed of the airplane.
The first expression corresponds to the case, when Vland . is being calculated for al-

ready existing airplane, for which the angle of attack at landing is known.
The second expression is intended for calculation of the landing speed of an airplane, which is being designed and for which the designer can choose an optimal in the
mean of decreasing the landing speed, landing angle of attack.
We will define a landing angle for an airplane that has tail-wheel landing gear as a
parking angle without strut compression and tyre compression. For an airplane that has
nose wheel landing gear, the landing angle of attack is the angle between the chord of the
wing and the horizon at the moment when the main wheels touch the land, without strut
compression and tyre compression, and the tail part of the fuselage is distant for 0.2-0.3m
from the land.
At the moment of contact with the runway the trajectory of an airplane is not horizontal, because at the parachuting stage an airplane gets some vertical speed. Because of
this, the angle of attack of the wing, and also C ya , increases. However, as number of calculations prove, the increase in C ya of the wing numerically approximately equal to decrease in C ya of the airplane, caused by the fact that while landing, a pilot pulls out the
control stick and the lift force at the tail unit becomes negative (elevators deflect up).
Therefore, it is possible not to take into account these mutually exclusive factors
while calculating C ya at landing angle of attack.
While knowing the landing angle of attack, it is possible to find C y a land . , and then
Vland . (13.5).
For an airplane with gear with tail-wheel landing gear:
C ya land . C ya t .d . C ya h .l .d . C ya gr . .

For an airplane that has gear with nose-wheel landing gear:

C ya land . C ya t .d . C ya h .l .d . C ya gr . .

During pancaking the speed of an airplane decreases by approx. 5%, and

Vland . 0.95

2 mg
.
SC ya land .

(13.6)

This expression is applicable when landing angle of attack is known. If it is unknown yet, then Vland . is expressed in a different way. In this case calculation of

Vland . should be based on C y a max at presence of land and taking into account influence of
high lift devices, which could be computed or obtained from experiment.
The parking angle of attack park . or angle of attack t .d . , at which the airplane
contacts land should be approx. 2 less than the critical angle of attack at presence of
land. This decrease of the angle of attack decreases C ya at landing in comparison to
C y a max approx. by 10% and increases Vland . by 5%. Instead of introduction the decreased

value of C ya to the expression for Vland . (13.5), it makes more sense not to take into account the decrease of speed by 5% while parachuting (13.6). Then we obtain the following
expression for Vland .

Vland .

2 mg

S ( C ya max C ya max h .l .d . C ya max gr . )

(13.7)

As comparison of the calculated values of Vland . to the flight-tests data shows, the
errors of calculation the landing speed using provided expressions does not exceed 5%.
As a result of great decrease in because of land influence, the difficulties of designing the landing gear which will provide extensive use of the lift force at landing,
which is related to the necessary height of nose strut, could appear only for very heavy
airplanes.

Calculation of time and length of landing run of an airplane.

During landing run of the airplane an the runway, the airplane is acted by the following external forces (Fig.13.3):

Fig.13.3
1.

Lift force Ya

2.

Drag force X a

3.

Weight G

4.

Reactions of wheels N 1 and N 2

5.

Friction force between wheels and a surface of the runway F1 and F2

As we have already shown, the landing of an airplane that has tail wheel landing
gear is performed on three points, so that angle of attack during the landing run is constant
and it equals to the parking angle of attack park . (The parking angle of attack is the angle between the chord of the wing and the horizon / horizontal plane at parking).
The airplanes, which have nose wheel landing gear, usually land on main wheels.
Such airplanes move on main wheels during the greatest part of the landing run. At the end
of the run a pilot lowers nose of an airplane, so that landing run ends up on three wheels.
With some approximation it is possible to assume that also in this case the angle of attack
during the landing run is constant and equals to the angle of attack at the moment of landing.
Thus, while calculating the landing run with no regard for type of landing gear, it is

possible to adopt constant angle of attack.

Equations of motion of an airplane at landing run take become

mV X a F1 F2 ,

(13.8)

G Ya N 1 N 2 .
For airplanes, which have nose wheel landing gear, according to mentioned above,
there will be a friction force and a reaction force of main wheels only, in the equations of
motion. For the airplanes with tail wheel it is convenient to introduce one resulting reduced friction force F and resulting reduced reaction force N, instead of two friction forces and two reaction forces of two main wheels and one tail wheel.
Taking into account everything mentioned above, the equation of motion becomes
m

dV
Xa F ,
dt

(13.9)

G Ya N ,

where m mland .
The friction force of wheels equals F fN f ( G Ya ) , therefore,
m

dV
X a f ( G Ya ) ,
dt

(13.10)

where f - friction coefficient, which depends on the type of runway surface, pressure in
tyres of wheels, degree of wheels braking and speed of an airplane, changes in a wide
range:
for dry concrete f 0.6 0.7 ,
for damp concrete f 0.36 0.4
Integrating last equation (13.10), we obtain time of landing run:
Vland .

t l .run m

Vland .

dV
m
X a f ( G Ya )

(13.11)

dV
fG

V 2
2

S C xa fC ya

Doing obvious substitution

dV dV dL dV
V

V,
dt
dL dt dL

after integration well obtain expression for the length of the landing run
Vland .

Ll .run m

VdV
fmg

V 2
2

S C xa fC ya

(13.12)

Because at landing run the brakes are usually used, the friction coefficient is greater
than at takeoff run (see lection 13).
Time and length of ground run ( t l .run and Ll .run ) could be calculated using numerical integration techniques or by graphical integration.
Well obtain the landing distance value by adding L* (13.3) and Ll .run .
The length of landing distance for the airplanes with great load on the wing comes
out to be significant. It makes sense to decrease it by any means possible. For this, landing
is done with extracted high lift devices to landing position (landing split flaps, flaps, etc.).
If this takes place, we can see that not only lift force coefficient increases, that leads to decreasing of Vland . , but also frontal pressure coefficient C xa decreases, contributes to decreasing of the landing distance, length of ground run, in particular.
For further reduction of landing distance, as it was mentioned, the special air brakes
in the form of brake flaps disposed on fuselage or wing or brake parachutes extracted in
the moment of touch to the land are used. The effective resource of reduction of landing
distance is the thrust reversing i.e. changing the thrust force direction on the contrary. In
this case it is necessary to make changes in formulas for t l .run and Ll .run , to add to the
forces acting on the aircraft the negative value of reverse thrust force Prev which, in first
approximation, is equal to constant during the ground run.
For example in the presence of reverse thrust:

Vland .

Ll .run m

VdV
fmg

(13.13)

S C xa fC ya Prev .

Reversing thrust is the powerful resource for reducing the ground run length.
Example:

G
4000 m 2 ; Vland . 250 km h 70 m sec ; C xa fC ya 0.1 ; f 0.3 ;
S
Ll .run 980 m .

With the same data but with P rev .

P
0.5 ; Ll .run 320 .
G

If during the ground run to consider that the acceleration is constant and equals to
some mean value jav . , then it is possible to calculate the integral (13.13) analytically.
In the first approximation it will be equal to:
Ll .run

2
Vland
.,

2 jav .

(13.14)

where
jav .

X a av . f ( G Ya av . )
mland .

X a av . F av . fYa av .
mland .

(13.15)

It is possible to appropriate that

X a av .

park . ; F av .

Gland .
; K park . - the lift-to-drag ratio for the parking angle of attack
3 K park .
1
2
fGland . ; Ya av . Gland . .
3
3