Flight Dynamics

S PRASANTH
Assistant Professor
One engine in-operative condition
Every aircraft that has two or more engines must
perform all the basic manoeuvres (take-off, climb,
cruise, turn and landing) even if one of the engines fail.

When one of the engines on a typical multi-engine

aircraft becomes inoperative, a thrust imbalance exists
between the operative and inoperative sides of the
aircraft.

This thrust imbalance causes several negative effects in

addition to the loss of one engine's thrust.

During the design phase of the aircraft, the tail design

engineer sizes the vertical stabilizer / tail to comply with
the controllability and performance requirements after
engine failure in aviation regulations
Aircraft in one engine
in-operative condition
If one engine fails in the two engine aircraft, the thrust line deviates from the center line
of the aircraft.

The operating engine creates a yawing moment, the aircraft turns to the side of operating
engine and a rolling moment is also created.

The pilot uses the vertical stabilizers to counteract the yawing moment and roll moment
is given by the pilot to counter the roll moment.
 Rudder lock
In order to understand the phenomenon of rudder lock,
the following points may be noted.

(1) At high values of β (greater than about 15degree), the

vertical tail begins to stall and the following changes
occur.

(2) Contribution of fuselage to Cn becomes nonlinear.

(3) The yawing moment coefficient(Cn),the rudder

deflection required to make Cn equal to zero or
(δr)reqd.

(4) The control force is proportional to the difference

between the control deflection required and the
floating angle (δfree).
When β is greater than about 15 , (δr)free increases rapidly.

It ((δr)free) equals (δr)reqd at β = βrl and then exceeds (δr)reqd In this situation, the pedal force
would be reverse in direction.

This phenomenon is called rudder lock as rudder may go to the mechanical stop to rudder deflection
and get locked there .
Prevention of rudder lock
The rudder lock is prevented by adding a small extension, at the
beginning of the vertical tail. This extension is called DORSAL FIN.

Aircraft with dorsal fin

When wind tunnel tests were carried out on fuselage attached with fins at the rear, the following
effects were observed.

There was a change in Cnf vs β curve at high values of β.

The stalling of the vertical tail was also delayed by dorsal fin.
The dorsal fin acts as a vertical slender delta wing which generates a strong vortex and delays
separation of flow on the vertical tail.
Thus, with dorsal fin added, the contribution of the fuselage plus tail does not change sign
even at β values as high as 300
The schematic variations of pedal force with and without dorsal fin are shown.
Thank you