Flight dynamics II Prof. E.G.

Tulapurkara
Stability and control
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras 1
Chapter 2
Exercises
2.1. Briefly explain the following
(a) An airplane with high wing has more longitudinal static stability than the
one with low wing.
(b) A T-tail i.e. horizontal tail above vertical tail is used when the airplane has
engines mounted on rear fuselage.
(c) F-16 and Mirage 2000 are inherently unstable. What is the objective of
such a design? What precautions must be taken in such airplanes?
2.2 Briefly answer the following.
(a) How are wing setting and tail setting decided?
(b) How is stick-fixed neutral point determined from flight tests?
(c) Obtain an expression for contribution of horizontal tail to stability. Why
does this contribution increase in the proximity of ground?
2.3. Define the following terms.
(a) Neutral point stick-fixed
(b) Elevator power
(c) Static margin.
2.4 A wing section being tested in a wind tunnel is hinged at its leading edge,
with freedom to rotate about the hinge axis. Calculate the equilibrium floating
angle of the wing at a tunnel speed of 100 kmph, given that: wing weight is
250 N/m
2
, c.g. location at 0.4 c, a.c. location at 0.24c, C
mac
= -0.04,
0L
= -3
0
,
dC
l
/ d = 0.105 deg
-1
. Assume standard sea level conditions.
Is the equilibrium statically stable?
[Ans*: Floating angle = = 3.81
0
; Stability: yes]
Note: In this problem the a.c. is ahead of c.g. and one may be tempted to
conclude that the equilibrium is unstable. However, it should be noted that the

* Remark : Due to round-off errors in calculations , the student may get values
which are slightly different from those given in the answers. Values within 0.5%
of those given here can be regarded as correct.
Flight dynamics II Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Stability and control
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras 2

airfoil is hinged at the leading edge (l.e.) and when disturbed, it would rotate
about that point.Since, a.c. is behind the leading edge, a disturbance causing
would result in M
le
. Hence, the equilibrium is stable.
It may be pointed out that an airplane in flight, when disturbed, rotates about c.g..
Since, the lift acts through a.c., the relative locations of a.c. and c.g. decide the
static stability of the airplane.
2.5 For an airplane the pitching moment co-efficient is given by the following
expression when c.g. lies at 0.25 c.
C
mcg
= 0.05 - 0.10C
L
- 0.01
e
where
e
is in degrees.
Answer the following:
(a) Is the airplane statically stable? Justify.
(b) What is the static margin in this case?
(c) What is the location of neutral point stick fixed?
(d) What is the value of C
L
for which equilibrium is achieved with zero elevator
deflection?
(e) What is the value of elevator effectiveness (C
m
)?
(f) If the elevator deflection is limited to 25
0
, locate the most forward c.g.
location for which trim is obtained at C
L
=1.5 in free light.
[Ans: (a) dC
m
/dC
L
= -0.1, hence stable (b) Static margin = 0.1 (c)x
NP
= 0.35c
(d) C
L
= 0.5 (e) C
m
= -0.01 deg
-1
(f) (x
cg
/ c)
forward
= 0.15]

2.6 An airplane has the following contributions from various components.
mo w
(C ) = - 0.096, ( )
(
(

cg
m
w
x
C = 4.3 - 0.25 per radian
c
, ( )
mo
f,n,p
C = 0.04 ,
( )
m
f,n,p
C = 0.38 per radian , ( )
mo
t
C = +0.17 ( )
mt
stick-fixed
C = -1.04 per radian.
Obtain (a) location of stick-fixed neutral point and (b) ( )
m
stick-fixed
C when c.g. is at
0.31 c .
[Ans: (a)
NP
x
= 0.403
c
and (b) ( )
m
stick-fixed
C when c.g. is at 0.31c is 0.402]
Flight dynamics II Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Stability and control
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras 3
2.7 An airplane has the canard configuration. (a) Obtain an expression for the
moment coefficient about c.g. Simplify the problem by neglecting (i) the upwash
and / or downwash effects between lifting surfaces and (ii) the contribution of the
horizontal components of the aerodynamic forces to the moment.
(b) Find the location of stick-fixed neutral for the airplane from the following data.
Wing :
Lw
C = 4.8 / radian,
ac
x = 0.25 c
Fuselage, nacelle and power : ( )
m
f,n,p
C = 0.45/ radian
Canard :
LC C
C = 4.0/radian,S = 0.18 S
c
l = distance between a.c. of canard and c.g. = 3.2c
Note: Measure the distances of a.c. and c.g. from the leading edge of the mean
aerodynamic chord of the wing.

[Answers :
(a) C
mcg
= C
macw
C
LW

( )
cg
ac C
mcg LC c
f,n,p
x
x S
- + C +C
c c S c
c
l | |
|
\ .

( ) ( )
cg
ac C
m LW m LC c
stick-fixed f,n,p
x
x S
C = - C - + C +C
c c S c
c
l | |
|
\ .

where,
c
= Ratio of dynamic pressure at canard to the free stream
dynamic pressure 1 ~ .
(b)
NP
x /c = - 0.324i.e. the neutral point is 0.324 c ahead of the leading edge
of the mean aerodynamic chord of wing.
Note : The canard surface, fuselage, nacelle and power have destabilizing
contributions. The Wing has stabilizing contribution when c.g. is ahead of
a.c.]

2.8 A jet airplane has the following characteristics C
Lw
= 4.87 rad
-1
,
C
Lt
= 3.32 rad
-1
, (C
m
)
f,n,p
= 0.39 rad
-1
, S
t
/S = 0.25, l
t
/ c = 3.0, = 0.9,
d/d = 0.4. At the rear most c.g. location the airplane has a static margin
Flight dynamics II Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Stability and control
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras 4
stick-fixed of -0.02. By how much the area of the horizontal tail be increased to
have a static margin of +0.05?
[Ans: (S
t
/S)
desired
= 0.313, percentage change needed in S
t
is 25.3%]

2.9 Following readings were obtained, after smoothing the data, taken during two
flight tests to obtain the stick-fixed neutral point. Obtain the location of stick-fixed
neutral point.
C
L
Elevator reflection (degrees) -smoothed values
c.g. at 0.25c c.g. at 0.35c
0.20 1 3
0.4 -2 2
0.6 -5 1
0.8 -8 0
1.0 -11 -1

[Ans: x
NP
/ c = 0.4]
2.10 One of the ways to experimentally determine d/d from wind tunnel tests is
to obtain C
mcg
vs curves for a model of the airplane with (a) horizontal tail
removed and (b) horizontal tail at different settings.
Following readings were obtained when the experimental data in such tests
reported in Ref.1.1, chapter 2 were fitted with straight lines; is in degrees
i) horizontal tail removed: (C
mcg
)
wingbody
= - 0.0019+0.00556
ii) horizontal tail set at i
t
= -2
0
; (C
mcg
)
airplane
= 0.081-0.00974
iii) horizontal tail set at i
t
= 0
0
; (C
mcg
)
airplane
= 0.037-0.00974
Obtain d/d.
[Ans: d/d = 0.303]
(Hint: It is known that :
(a)
t
= - +i
t
, (Ex 2.8.1)
(b) The tail contribution is zero when
t
is zero. Now, from the data for i
t
= -2
0

obtain the when the contribution of the airplane equals that of wing body
combination i.e. (C
mcg
)
airplane
= (C
mcg
)
wingbody
. From data sets i) and ii) this would be
Flight dynamics II Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Stability and control
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras 5
at = 5.41
0
. Similarly from data for i
t
= 0. Obtain for which
(C
mcg
)
airplane
= (C
mcg
)
wingbody
. From data sets i) and iii) this would be at = 2.54
o
.
Now, the values of
t
are zero at these two values of and the corresponding
values of i
t
are known. Thus, from Eq. (Ex.2.8.1) two values of corresponding
to the two values of are obtained. Using these values obtain d/d ).