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La te ra la n d D ire ctio n a l

sta b ility
Dihedral effect - Lateral control - Coupling
between rolling and yawing moments - Adverse
yaw effects - Aileron reversal - Static
directional stability - Weather cocking
effect - Rudder requirements - One engine
inoperative condition - Rudder lock
Damped oscillation
 Divergent oscillation

Undamped oscillation
 Subsidance

Divergence
 Neutral stability

Case Statically stable Dynamically stable
Damped oscillation Yes Yes
Divergent oscillation Yes No
Undamped oscillation Yes No
Subsidence Yes Yes
Divergence No No
Neutral Stability No No
Where do we stand?
Lateral Stability
• Stability in Roll
• w/o Directional stability
Slip
• Forward slip
– The forward slip will change the
heading of the aircraft away from
the down wing, while retaining the
original flight path of the aircraft
• Sideslip
– The airplane's longitudinal axis
remains parallel to the original
flightpath, but the airplane no
longer flies straight along its original
track. Now, the horizontal
component of lift forces the airplane
to move sideways.
S id e slip
• Phenomenon due to unbalanced
sideforce
• Flying in a slip is aerodynamically
inefficient
• In a slip much more drag is created
• However if a cross wind is present an
appropriate side slip may be
necessary at touchdown.
• A sideslip is also one of the methods
used by pilots to execute a
crosswind landing while the other
A n g le o f S id e slip ( β)[ ITF θ]
D ih e d ra la n g le
• Dihedral angle is
the upward angle
from horizontal
of the wings or
tail plane of a
fixed-wing
aircraft.
Dihedral
Dihedral effect
• Dihedral effect is the amount of roll
moment produced per degree (or
radian) of sideslip.
• Dihedral effect of an aircraft is a
rolling moment resulting from the
vehicle having a non-zero angle of
sideslip. Increasing the dihedral
angle of an aircraft increases the
dihedral effect on it.
• Hence Dihedral effect α Dihedral
angle
Other Aircraft Parameters
Affecting Dihedral effect
• Wing sweep
• Vertical location of center of gravity
• The height and size of anything on
an aircraft that changes its
sidewards force as sideslip
changes.
Keel effect
• Keel effect is the result of the sideforce-generating surfaces being above or
below the center of gravity in any aircraft.
• Examples of such surfaces are the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and parts of the
fuselage. When an aircraft is in a sideslip, these surfaces generate
sidewards lift forces. If the surface is above or below the center of gravity,
the sidewards lift forces generate a rolling moment. This "rolling moment
caused by sideslip" is "dihedral effect". Keel effect is the contribution of
these side forces to rolling moment (as sideslip increases), i.e. keel effect is
the contribution of the side forces to dihedral effect. Sideforce producing
surfaces above the center of gravity will increase dihedral effect, while
sideforce producing surfaces below the center of gravity will decrease
dihedral effect.
• Increased dihedral effect (helped or hindered by keel effect) results in a greater
tendency for the aircraft to return to level flight when the aircraft is put into
a bank. Or, reduces the tendency to diverge to a greater bank angle when
the aircraft starts wings-level.
• Keel effect is also called "Pendulum Effect" because a lower center of gravity
increases the effect of sideways forces (above the center of gravity) in
producing a rolling moment. This is because the moment arm is longer, not
because of gravitational forces. A low center of gravity is like a pendulum
(which has a very low center of gravity).
Coordinated Flight
• Coordinated flight of an aircraft is flight
without sideslip.
• When an aircraft is flying with zero sideslip
a turn and bank indicator installed on the
aircraft’s instrument panel usually shows
the ball in the center of the spirit level.
There is no lateral acceleration of the
aircraft and occupants perceive their
weight to be acting straight downwards
into their seats.
• Particular care to maintain coordinated
flight is required by the pilot when
entering and leaving turns
Turn and Bank indicator
Turn and Bank Indicator with
zero slip
Advantages of Coordinated
Flight
• It is more comfortable for the
occupants
• It minimizes the drag force on the
aircraft
• It causes fuel to be drawn equally
from tanks in both wings
• It minimizes the risk of entering a
spin
Coordinating the turn
• If the pilot were to use only the rudder to
initiate a turn in the air, the airplane would
tend to "skid" to the outside of the turn.
• If the pilot were to use only the ailerons to
initiate a turn in the air, the airplane would
tend to "slip" towards the lower wing.
• If the pilot were to fail to use the elevator to
increase the angle of attack throughout the
turn, the airplane would also tend to slip
towards the lower wing
• However, if the pilot makes appropriate use of
the rudder, ailerons and elevator to enter
and leave the turn such that sideslip and
lateral acceleration are zero the airplane will
be in coordinated flight.
A d ve rse Ya w
• Adverse yaw is a yaw aircraft movement opposite to the
direction change initiated by a roll movement. It is a secondary
effect of the application of the ailerons in aircraft. Its cause and
effect can be explained as follows:
• As the outer turn wing moves up, its induced drag increases; as
the opposite inner turn wing descends, its induced drag
decreases. There is a differential moment drag opposite to the
turn.
• There is an additional adverse yaw contribution from a profile drag
imbalance between the upgoing and the downgoing wing.
• The net effect is a tendency to yaw the aircraft in the wrong
direction for the turn.
• According to the diagram, when the control column of an aircraft is
moved to the right, the right aileron is deflected upwards, and
the left aileron is deflected downwards, causing the aircraft to
roll to the right. As the right wing descends, its lift vector, which
is perpendicular to the relative motion, tilts forward and
therefore has a forward component. Conversely, as the left
wing moves up, its lift vector tilts back and therefore has an aft
force component. The fore/aft lift force components on the right
and left wings constitute the adverse yaw moment.
Minimizing the adverse yaw
Adverse yaw is countered by using the aircraft's rudder to perform a
coordinated turn, however an aircraft designer can reduce the
amount of correction required by careful design of the aircraft.
Some methods are common:
General characteristics

• As the induced drag is the major cause to adverse yaw, an


important parameter is the lift coefficient. Lower wing loading
and higher minimal speed lead to less adverse yaw.
Yaw stability

• A strong directional stability is the first way to reduce adverse yaw


. That means important vertical tail moment (area and lever
arm about gravity center).
Roll spoilers

• On large aircraft where rudder use is inappropriate at high speeds


or ailerons are too small at low speeds, roll spoilers can be used
to minimise adverse yaw or increase roll moment. To function
as a lateral control, the spoiler is raised on the down-going
wing (up aileron) and remains retracted on the other wing. The
raised spoiler increases the drag, and so the yaw is in the same
direction as the roll.
Differential deflection
ailerons
• Because downwards deflection of an aileron
typically causes more profile drag and
induced drag than an upwards deflection,
a simple way of mitigating adverse yaw
would be to rely solely on the upward
deflection of the opposite aileron to cause
the aircraft to roll. However, this would
lead to a slow roll rate - and therefore a
better solution is to make a compromise
between adverse yaw and roll rate. This is
what occurs in Differential ailerons.
• The down-going aileron moves through a
smaller angle than the up-going aileron,
reducing the amount of aileron drag, and
thus reducing the effect of adverse yaw.
Differential deflection
ailerons
Frise ailerons
• Frise ailerons are designed so that when up
aileron is applied, some of the forward edge
of the aileron will protrude downward into the
airflow, causing increased drag on this (down-
going) wing. This will counter the drag
produced by the other aileron, thus reducing
adverse yaw.
• Unfortunately, as well as reducing adverse yaw,
Frise ailerons will increase the overall drag of
the aircraft much more than applying rudder
correction. Therefore they are less popular in
aircraft where minimizing drag is important
• Note : Frise ailerons are primarily designed to
reduce roll control forces. Contrary to the
illustration, the aileron leading edge has to be
rounded to prevent flow separation and
flutter at negative deflections. That prevents
Frise aileron
S ta tic D ire ctio n a lS ta b ility
• Stability in the direction of travel
• Categorized into
– Weathercock stability
– Spiral stability

Angle of Yaw and Sideslip
W e a th e r co ckin g e ffe ct
• Application of the static stability
principle to rotation about the z axis
suggests that a stable airplane should
have "weathercock stability
• If an aeroplane is yawed due to a gust
of wind, it’s ability to automatically
return to it’s previous heading
depends on the area behind it’s
centre of gravity to produce a
restoring force. The fuselage ahead of
the centre of gravity will tend to
Spiral stability
• Spiral stability is the airplane's
resistance to spiraling or going into
a turn that gets tighter and tighter
A large rudder or vertical fin and a
lack of dihedral can mean the
aircraft is pushed into a turn.
R u d d e r re q u ire m e n ts
• There are two sections covering tail surface to reflect the
fact that there is an aerodynamic side and a structural
side to sizing.
• The size of the tail surfaces depends on the force they have
to generate. This in turn depends on their distance from
the centre of gravity and their area.
• In general, the surfaces have to be large enough to control
the airplane but they must not be too large to produce
excessive amounts of drag. This means balancing their
size with the length of the tail boom.
• A relatively simple approach will be taken with some “rules
of thumbs” taken from other aircrafts, the idea we shall
use is “tail volume coefficient”, that is a length times an
area (a volume) divided by a length times an area
(another volume) to give a non-dimensional number.
• Regard the results as a starting point.Increase the area or
the tail boom length as a result of flight tests.
• The rudder is used to control the
direction of flight as well as keep
the aircraft flying straight if side
gusts are encountered.
• A value suggested for the vertical tail
coefficient VV is 0.035

• The value suggested for the elevator
tail volume is 0.5
• The elevator has to balance drag with
weight, a large elevator with a short
tail boom will result in a large amount
of drag, making the tail boom longer
will reduce the elevator area but the
weight of the tail boom will start to be
a problem.
• A good starting point is a tail boom
length about 1/5 th the wing span
R e m a rks
• H ig h ly M a n e u ve ra b le = Po o r S ta b ility
• H ig h ly S ta b le = Po o r M a n e u ve ra b ility
Longitudinal dihedral
• Longitudinal dihedral is the
difference between the angle of
incidence of the wing and angle of
incidence of the horizontal tail.
• Longitudinal dihedral can be
meaningfully identified as the angle
between the zero lift axis of the
two surfaces instead of, between the
root chords of the two surfaces i.e.
the wing and the horizontal tail.
Dorsal Fin
Any queries?

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