STABILITY

o Is the tendency of an
aircraft to return to a
steady state of flight
 Stability without any help from the
What is stability? pilot,
after being disturbed by an
external force.
• There are two broad
categories of stability, static
and dynamic.
  Static stability
o Neutral static stability
o Positive static stability
o Negative static stability (or static
(or static stability)
instability)
 ....has the tendency to return to
equilibrium.
• Neutral static stability exists
if an aircraft is subject to a
disturbance and has neither
the tendency to return nor the
• Positive static tendency to continue in the
stability (or static displacement direction.
stability) exists if an
aircraft is disturbed • Negative static stability (or
from equilibrium static instability) exists if an
and… aircraft has a tendency to
continue in the direction of
disturbance.
  Dynamic dynamic stability is defined by the
stability resulting motion with time.
o If an aircraft is disturbed from
• While static stability equilibrium, the time taken for
is concerned with
the motion to subside is a
the initial tendency
measure of the aircraft's dynamic
of an aircraft to
stability.
return to
equilibrium,
 o if the oscillations increase in
magnitude the aircraft is
dynamically unstable.
o if the oscillations o Finally if the oscillations persist
damp out with time without either increasing or
the aircraft is decreasing in magnitude the
dynamically stable, aircraft has neutral dynamic
stability.
  Longitudinal
stability
• There are two types o Static longitudinal stability
of longitudinal o Dynamic longitudinal stability
stability
  Static
longitudinal
stability
…it tends to return towards the trim
• An aircraft will angle of attack when displaced by a
exhibit static gust OR a control input.
longitudinal
stability
 …the displacement is resisted by
opposing control forces.
• The aircraft which is • If the aircraft is neutrally
unstable will stable, it tends to remain at any
continue to pitch in displacement to which it is
the disturbed disturbed.
direction until
 o Position of centre of gravity
o Position of wings centre of
o Factors affecting pressure
static longitudinal
o Design of the tailplane
stability
o Wing down-wash
  Position of the
Centre of Gravity

o Its forward position is

limited by the fact that
high stability results in
poor controllability.
 which in turn is reflected in the
amount of stick force necessary to
displace an aircraft from this
position.
o Stability tends to
resist movement away It follows that the further
from the aircraft's forward the centre of gravity,
trimmed attitude, the greater the stick force, and
the greater the effort required
to manoeuvre the aircraft
  Position of the
Wing's Centre of
Pressure
o If the centre of pressure
is positioned behind the
centre of gravity it will
have a stabilizing effect
on the aircraft
 a nose-up movement will be
applied to an aircraft in
 Conversely if the response to a pitch-up
centre of pressure disturbance,
moves ahead of the and will have a destabilizing
centre of gravity, effect.
 Assignment • Explain how the following affect
the static longitudinal stability of
an aircraft?
• Design of the tailplane
• Wing down-wash
  Dynamic
longitudinal
are concerned with the time
stability
history response of the
o The considerations aeroplane to disturbances,
of longitudinal the variation of displacement
dynamic stability… amplitude with time following a
disturbance.
• Longitudinal o long period oscillation (phugoid)
dynamic stability of o short period motion
an aeroplane
generally consists of
two basic modes of
oscillation:
  Long Period
Oscillation
(Phugoid)

• Involves noticeable
variations in:
• pitch attitude, altitude and
airspeed, but nearly
constant angle of attack
 o Since the pitch rate is quite low
and only negligible changes in
angle of attack take place,
o The period of damping of the phugoid is weak.
oscillation in the
o However, such weak damping
phugoid is between 1
does not necessarily have any
and 2 minutes.
great consequence.
  Short Period
Oscillation
• Short period oscillation
involves significant
changes in angle of
attack, with
approximately constant
speed, height and pitch
attitude.
 o The short period oscillation
o It consists of rapid can generate damaging
flight loads due to the rapid
pitch oscillations
changes in ‘g’ loading,
during which the
aeroplane is constantly and it is adversely affected by
being restored towards pilot response lag.
equilibrium by its
static stability
 o Dynamic stability is reduced
High altitude, and at high altitude due to reduced
consequently low aerodynamic damping.
density (high TAS),
reduces aerodynamic
damping.
 Directional • The directional static
stability stability of an aircraft is its
natural or inbuilt
o Static directional tendency to recover from
stability a disturbance in yaw,
and is mainly provided by
the fin.
 The Factors Affecting
Static Directional
Stability
o When the side slip is
high, fin/rudder stall can
o The vertical fin is happen.
the primary source of o This is similar to stall of
static directional wing,
stability and is highly
but in a different plane i.e.
stabilizing up to the
for vertical stabilizer.
stall.
 the lift characteristics of
vertical stabilizer can also
behave same as wing at high
angle of attack.
• Beyond a certain angle,
• When angle of attack airflow separation takes
(for vertical fin it is place and vertical stabilizer
called side slip or may not generate requisite
Beta)of the vertical force ( similar to lift for
stabilizer is high in wing) and ultimately
terms of relative airflow, vertical stabilizer would
stall.
 Ventral fins • They have no effect on static
longitudinal stability.
• They have a negative effect
on static lateral stability & a
positive effect on static
directional stability
  Lateral o static lateral stability of an
stability aircraft is its natural, or
inbuilt tendency to recover
o The Static lateral from a disturbance in roll.
stability
o A disturbance in roll causes
one wing to rise and the
other to drop.
• The wings naturally
damp out the motion
in roll and the
aircraft assumes a
banked attitude.
 o Wing Dihedral
o Wing Sweepback
• Design features o Wing Position
that provides Static
lateral stability: o High Keel and Low Centre of
Gravity
 Wing Dihedral

• As the aircraft
sideslips,
 whilst the upper wing has a
reduced angle of attack
The lower wing produces
greater lift than the upper wing,
…the dihedral of the
and the difference in lift
wing places the lower
between the two wings thus
wing at an increased angle
produces a rolling moment,
of attack, whilst the upper
which returns the aircraft to its
wing has a reduced angle
former equilibrium position.
of attack
 Wing Sweepback

As the aircraft sideslips,

the lower wing presents
more of its span (known as
effective span) to the
airflow than the upper
wing.
 The aspect ratio of the lower
wing thus becomes greater than
that of the upper wing and it
 The effective chord produces greater lift.
of the lower wing The increased lift produces a
also decreases, rolling moment and the aircraft
whilst that of the upper rolls back to its former
wing increases. equilibrium position.
 o The direction of relative
airflow decreases the
 Wing Position effective angle of attack of
the wing into wind and
o A low wing position increases the effective angle
gives an unstable of attack of the wing out of
contribution. wind,
tending to increase the rolling
moment.
 o The direction of relative
airflow increases the effective
angle of attack of the wing into
wind and decreases the effective
angle of attack of the wing out
o A high wing location of wind, tending to decrease the
gives a stable rolling moment.
contribution. o A wing located at the mid wing
position will generally exhibit a
“dihedral effect” no different
from that of the wing alone.
  High Keel and
Low Centre of
Gravity
o As an aircraft sideslips,
its side surfaces
(i.e. the fuselage and fin)
are perpendicular to the
relative airflow.
 … …and the aircraft rolls back to its
former wings-level condition.
• It follows that the o The lower the centre of gravity,
large surface area
the greater the degree of lateral
above the aircraft’s
stability.
centre of gravity
produces a restoring
moment
  Factors affecting
static lateral • Flap deflection causes the
stability inboard section of the wing to
become more effective
o High lift devices and
power have a and the C of P to move inboard
destabilizing effect closer to the aircraft’s
on static lateral longitudinal axis thus reduces
stability by reducing the rolling moment.
the dihedral effect.
  Laterally
dynamic effects i.e. sideslip will simultaneously
produce a rolling and a yawing
• When an aeroplane is moment.
placed in a sideslip,
this will cause Spiral divergence
the lateral and
or dutch roll.
directional response
will be coupled,
 o Spiral divergence will exist
when static directional
stability is very large when
 Spiral divergence compared to the “dihedral
effect”.
What causes spiral
divergence? Or directional stability of an
aeroplane is strong and the
lateral stability is weak.
• How does spiral divergence
occur?
 o The fin and rudder tend to
yaw the aeroplane into the
airflow in the direction of the
dropped wing.
o When a wing drops,
Because of the yaw, the higher
due to a disturbance,
wing on the outside of the turn is
it causes other
travelling faster than the lower
secondary motions to
wing and develops a greater
be initiated.
amount of lift.
 o and if the rolling moment is
greater it will tend to increase
the angle of bank.
o The character of spiral
This generates a rolling divergence is not violent.
moment in the opposite o The aeroplane, when disturbed
direction to the from the equilibrium of level
correcting moment of flight, begins a slow spiral
the dihedral which gradually increases to a
spiral dive.
 following a lateral disturbance to
the equilibrium of the aeroplane.
 Dutch Roll • Dutch roll occurs when the
directional stability of an
• Dutch roll is the aeroplane is weak and the lateral
undulating motion of stability is strong,
an aeroplane in the
which may be exacerbated by an aft
directional and lateral
CG position because of the
planes,
shortened corrective moment arm.
 either of which may be extreme, can
o If an aeroplane is cause oscillatory instability,
disturbed laterally which is much more serious than
the combined rolling spiral instability.
motion and yawing
motion,
 • Wind gust may cause an
aeroplane to yaw port,
the port wing effectively slows down
How does Dutch roll and develops less lift but the
occur? starboard wing effectively speeds up
and develops more lift
and therefore causes the aeroplane to
roll to port.
 the starboard wing also
generates an increased amount
of drag,
o Coincident with the
production of greater which produces a yaw to
lift, starboard resulting in the port
wing developing more lift and
reversing the direction of the roll.
 o This automatically displaces
the rudder proportional to the
rate of yaw to damp-out the
o Aircraft with a oscillations.
tendency to Dutch
o Flying at FL 250,what action
roll are fitted with a
will you take ,if the Yaw
Yaw Damper.
Damper fails in flight?