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Procedures
0.0 Denitions
1. Angular acceleration: acceleration of an aircraft around some of its
2 2 2
d θ d φd ψ
axes. Expressed with the Euler angles: , ,
dt2 dt2 dt2
2. Inertial acceleration: acceleration of the CoG with respect to Earth-
d2 x d2 y d2 z
centered Axes. , ,
dt2 dt2 dt2
3. Point Performance: performance of an aircraft in a given point of its
trajectory, in which the steady ight is possible.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
9. Altitude: the height (z ) of the aircraft center of gravity above the mean
sea level. (There are other denitions of altitudes. By context, it will be
clear which of them we are referring to).
11. Reference Angle of Attack: the angle of attack of the aircraft along
the dened reference trajectory.
12. Zero-lift Angle of Attack: angle of attack (αzero−lif t ) for which the
wing lift or the aircraft lift is zero.
13. Pitching Angle (θ): the angle that the Xb axis shapes with the plane
Xh − Y h. It is a geometrical angle and it would have a sense even if the
airplane had a null speed. It may be measured in ight and is part of the
parameters of the Flight Recorder. If the horizontal reference is known,
an appropriate picture of the aircraft would allow to obtain it.
14. Downwash Angle: the air that ows over a lifting wing is deviated a
certain angle. This angle is called "Downwash" when the deviation is
downwards, and "Upwash" when it is upwards. Its accurate calculation
is complicated, since it greatly depends on the wing geometry.
17. Flight trajectory slope Angle: the angle among the Xw wind axis
and the XL Local Horizon axis. Also: angle among the velocity vector
and the horizontal. Normally represented by the greek letter γ. It is a
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0.0 Denitions
"Dynamic" angle and it does not bear any sense if the velocity is zero. A
picture of an aircraft does NOT allow to know it.
18. Conventional Angle of Attack: the angle among the Xb body axis
and the Xw wind axis. Normally represented by the greek letter α. It is
an "Aerodynamic" angle and it does not bear any sense if the velocity is
zero. A picture of an aircraft does NOT allow to know it.
v
19. Sideslip Angle: β ≈ (v is the velocity according to the Yb axis).
V0
20. Thrust Angle: the angle (ε) among the thrust vector (T ) and the ve-
locity vector (V ). (Dierent denitions are possible).
21. Wetted area: external surface of an aircraft that is in contact with the
airstream.
22. Energy Climb Method: study of the ascending ight (climb stage) of
an aircraft using the specic energy as the integration variable. It is an
approximate mathematical procedure that simplies some calculations.
Initiated by german engineers in 1944, when studying the behavior of the
rst operating jet aircraft.
(a) Specic Fuel Consumption independent from the speed and the thrust
lever position.
26. Landing Run: part of the landing in which the aircraft goes from the
VT D ("Touch Down") speed to a null velocity.
27. Take-o Run: part of the take-o during which the aircraft accelerates
from a null velocity to the VLO ("Lift-O") speed. During the take-o
run, the whole landing gear is in touch with the runway.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
29. Airfoil Center of Pressure (2D): the intersection of the action line of
the aerodynamic force and the airfoil chord.
30. Center of Pressure: point where the resultant lift aerodynamic force
cuts a reference line of the aircraft. For an aerodynamic airfoil, the ref-
erence line is the chord.
33. Friction drag coefcient: it is the part of the aerodynamic drag co-
ecient generated by friction over the aircraft surface. It is also called
parasitic drag coecient.
35. Running-in drag coefcient: ratio among the friction force and the
reaction force, assumed constant. It is dicult to quantify it.
36. Ideal lift coefcient: lift coecient of a wing that leads to the minimum
drag (it is dimensionless).
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0.0 Denitions
required to maintain a given ight condition. Usually, it also calls for the
value of δP,trim .
39. Time constant: the response of a rst order linear system is charac-
terized by a single parameter: the time constant λ. It intervenes in the
−λ t
shape of e .
40. Specic Fuel Consumption: ratio among the fuel mass ow rate and
the thrust. The mass ow rate may also be expressed in terms of weight.
(NOTE: the coherence of the units must be given attention to).
42. Flight qualities: a term that is related, among many other things, to
the force characteristics that need to be applied to the control lever of an
aircraft.
43. Wingtip chord: the chord in the tip of the wing (ct = ctip ).
44. Wing root chord: chord of the wing in the central reference line of the
fuselage (cr = croot ).
45. Mean Aerodynamic Chord: the chord of an Equivalent Rectangular
Wing. Parameter used to non-dimensionalize the Pitching Moment of a
wing. It is calculated as follows:
b/2
1
Z
mac = cw = c2 (y) dy
Sw −b/2
.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
54. Characteristic Equation: from the linear equations the system matrix
may be established. The determinant of that matrix equated to zero is
the characteristic equation of the system of linear equations. It is often
used in the stability analyses.
55. Weight Equation: it relates the aircraft weight variation to the engine
operating conditions (Thrust T and Specic Consumption Ce ). For a jet
aircraft:
dm
≈ −Ce T
dt
56. Kinematic Equations: equations that are deduced from the denition
of the linear velocity. They relate the position of the CoG to the compo-
nents of its velocity. They are three equations that relate the three linear
velocity components {u, v , w} to the temporal derivatives of the three
dx dy dz
spatial coordinates , , .
dt dt dt
57. Euler Equations: Three equations that relate the three components of
the aircraft angular velocity {p, q, r} to the temporal derivatives of the
dψ dθ dφ
Euler angles that dene the aircraft attitude in the space , , .
dt dt dt
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0.0 Denitions
59. Dynamic Equations: the equations that appear from the denition of
inertial acceleration and the application of the Newton's second law. They
relate the aircraft linear and angular velocity to the forces and moments
acting on the aircraft. They are three equations for the forces, related to
the linear accelerations; and three equations for the moments, related to
the angular accelerations.
61. Ground Effect: when an aircraft is ying close to the ground (for in-
stance, when taking-o or landing), the airow cannot be deviated down-
wards by the wing as much as if the aircraft was far from the ground.
The practical result is that the lift increases and the induced drag is re-
duced while this proximity is kept. It is equivalent to an increase in the
wingspan. Its general mathematical modelling is complex.
CL
64. Aerodynamic Efciency: E = .
CD
65. Stability Body Axes: the Stability Axes are used for dynamic stability
and control studies. In a given moment the aircraft is disturbed, usually
from a steady ight situation. The Stability Axes are Wing Axes aligned
with the Wind Axes in that precise initial moment.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
CL2
CDinduced =
π ARw eOswald
67. Dimensionless thrust (τ ): ratio among the aircraft thrust (T ) and the
∗
T EA
minimum thrust necessary for a given weight: τ=
W
68. Corrected thrust: a dimensionless thrust used sometimes to represent
the thrust data.
69. Thrust: is the concentrated force (T ) that acts on the aircraft due to
the pressure and velocity distribution at the engine inlet and the engine
outlet. In a propeller aircraft, the equivalent useful eect is also called
Thrust.
70. Specic Energy: addition of the gravitational potential energy and the
2
V
kinetic energy of an aircraft, divided by its weight: Es = +gh
2
71. Wingspan: distance from one wingtip to the other one (bw ).
72. Flight Envelope (or Flight Domain): the region of the (speed-altitude)
or the (Mach-altitude) plane in which the aircraft may steadily maintain
the horizontal balanced ight, taking into account all the aerodynamic
and propulsive limitations, for a given conguration.
74. Thickness: relation among the maximum thickness of an airfoil and the
chord at that point of the span (it is a dimensionless parameter).
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0.0 Denitions
78. Taper ratio: the dimensionless ratio among the chord at the wingtip
ctip
and the chord at the wing root. λ=
croot
79. Take-o transition stage: part of the take-o in which the aircraft
goes from h=0 to h = 35 ft.
80. Landing transition stage: part of the landing in which the aircraft
goes from h = 50 ft to the ground (h = 0).
81. Specic Power Excess: it is dened as the dierence among Thrust
Power (T ·V) and the Drag Power (D ·V) divided by the weight.
(T − D) V
SP E =
W
L
82. Load factor: ratio among the lift and the aircraft weight. n=
W
83. Distance factor: instantaneous increase in the distance travelled by unit
dx
of diminished weight. FD = −
dW
84. Induced drag factor: it is the term K of the Parabolic Drag Polar.
Below the critical Mach, it will be considered as independent from the
2
Mach number. CD = CD 0 + K CL
85. Time factor: instantaneous increase in the ight time by unit of dimin-
dt
ished weight. FT = −
dW
86. Horizontal Empennage Efciency Factor: ratio among the dynamic
pressure ahead of the horizontal empennage and the dynamic pressure
ahead of the wing (conventional conguration).
87. Slat: it is a leading edge mechanical device that allows the ow of high
energy air from the leading edge lower surface to the upper surface. This
delays the boundary layer separation, allowing the wing to adopt higher
angles of attack without stalling than the ones it would reach without the
device. It does not increase the lift by itself.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
88. Flap: it is a trailing edge mechanical device that allows the ow of high
energy from the trailing edge lower surface to the upper surface. This
reduces the boundary layer separation at high angles of attack and gen-
erates a substantial increase in the wing lift and drag.
89. Wing sweep (along the line that goes through a given fraction of the
wing chord): the angle among the line of a given fraction of the wing
chord with the Yb axis.
90. Wing planform: the S surface of an aircraft wing, extended from the
central line of the fuselage to the wingtips. Depending on the manufac-
turer, there are several ways of dening the part that falls within the
fuselage.
93. Running-in reaction force: the force exerted by the ground on the
aircraft during take-o and landing, through the structure of the landing
gear.
94. Running-in friction force: the force exerted by the ground on the
aircraft during take-o and landing due to the friction of the wheels when
turning around their axes, with or without brakes applied.
95. Transfer function: ratio among the output and the input in the plane
of the Laplace Transform.
96. Coordinated turn: a turn that is carried out without adverse yaw
(β = 0). It means that the aircraft does not experience an acceleration
along the OY b axis.
97. Control lever force gradient: the derivative of the force on the lever
with respect to the ight speed.
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0.0 Denitions
99. Specic Power Plot: Plot of the altitude versus speed for given values
of Specic Energy Excess of an aircraft.
100. Adverse Yawing: the deection of the ailerons (δA ) used to generate
a rolling moment L, uses to generate a yawing moment N as well. The
sense of this moment is opposed to the one that is desired for the turn.
101. Wing incidence: geometrical angle among the plane of the wing chord
and the Xb body axis.
104. Camber line: mean line among the upper surface and the lower surface
of an aerodynamic airfoil (2D).
106. Critical Mach number: Mach number for which there appear sonic
conditions (M = 1) somewhere on the wing surface (usually on the upper
surface).
107. Static Margin: it is the distance that the CoG is ahead of the Neutral
Point. It is often non-dimensionalized with some characteristic length
(usually, the mean aerodynamic chord).
109. Spherical Earth Model: the Earth is considered as a solid sphere whose
gravitational acceleration obeys the inverse-square law with the distance.
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Chapter 0. Procedures
110. Flat Earth Model: the Earth is assumed at, with a uniform gravita-
tional eld normal to that plane. This model is often used in atmospheric
Flight Dynamics.
111. Long-Period Mode (also known as Phugoid Mode): the typical longi-
tudinal response of an aircraft to a disturbance consists of 2 modes: the
Phugoid mode is characterized by a low frequency and a low damping. It
is the rst oscillating Normal Mode of the aircraft that was mathemat-
ically studied. Detected by Zhukowsky in 1891, it was later studied by
Lanchester (1908), who called it "Phugoid Mode".
112. Dutch Roll Mode: the characteristic equation for the lateral-directional
motion of an aircraft usually has two real roots and two complex (conju-
gated) roots. These two complex roots lead to the Dutch Roll Mode. It
is an oscillating, stable motion, but with low damping.
113. Roll Subsidence Mode: the characteristic equation for the lateral-
directional motion of an aircraft usually has two real roots and two com-
plex (conjugated) roots. One of the real roots is the Roll Subsidence
Mode, usually stable.
116. Spiral Divergence Mode: the characteristic equation for the lateral-
directional motion of an aircraft usually has two real roots and two com-
plex (conjugated) roots. One of the real roots is the Spiral Divergence
Mode, usually unstable. However, its evolution is slow, since it is small
in absolute value.
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0.0 Denitions
119. Pitching Moment: the component of the moment that acts on the
aircraft according to the Yb axis.
120. Hinge Moment of a control surface: moment that produces the pressure
distribution on the control surface with respect to the hinge line of the
control surface.
ZZZ
Ixy = Iyx = (x y) ρ dx dy dz
ZZZV
Ixz = Izx = (x z) ρ dx dy dz
ZZZV
Iyz = Izy = (y z) ρ dx dy dz
V
124. Longitudinal Motion: it takes place in the vertical plane (Xh − Zh).
As far as the Moments are concerned, it only includes the pitching one
(M ).
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Chapter 0. Procedures
126. Drag Divergence Mach Number: it is the Mach number from which
the drag starts rising quickly due to the appearance of shockwaves. There
are several conventional denitions.
127. Mach Number: relation among the aircraft speed and the speed of
V V V
sound at the ight altitude. M = = p ≈ √ (T in
a(T ) γ Rg T 20 T
Kelvin)
128. Reynolds number: relation among the viscous and the inertial forces
ρ(z) V l
of a uid. Re =
µ(z)
129. Trajectories optimization: nding the speed prole that minimizes or
maximizes a given performance index. For instance, the distance travelled
in a ight or the climbing time. It demands to express the speed as a
function of the variable of interest in each case.
130. Climb slope: inclination of the trajectory with respect to the Horizontal
Reference Line (HRL) in a point of the ascending trajectory. Usually
represented by the letter γ, positive above the HRL.
131. Lift Curve Slope (CLα ): mathematical slope of the curve that expresses
CL as a function of α. A distinction must be made among 2D and 3D.
It depends on the wing geometry and the Mach number, as well as the
Reynolds number.
135. Weight: concentrated force (W ) that acts on the aircraft CoG due to
the distribution of the dierent aircraft masses.
136. Maximum suction peak: point on the airfoil chord where the pressure
is minimum.
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0.0 Denitions
137. Symmetry plane: the vast majority of aircraft has a symmetry plane
among their left and their right sides. The symmetry plane is the Xb−Zb.
138. Drag Polar: the relation among the drag coecient and the lift coe-
cient: CL = CD(CL, M, Re).
139. Trimmed Drag Polar: the drag Polar that takes into account the pitch-
ing moment equation to include the drag generated by the needed deec-
tion of the elevator to trim the aircraft.
140. Parabolic Drag Polar: it is present when it may be assumed that the
mathematical expression for the aerodynamic drag is parabolic with CL:
CD(M ) = CD0 (M ) + K(M ) CL2
141. Inertial position: position of the aircraft CoG1 with respect to the
Earth-Centered Axes.
144. Stick-xed Maneuver Point: the position of the CoG in which the
required deection angle of the elevator to carry out the maneuver with
a n−g pull is zero, in a control system considered irreversible.
1 In the Flight Mechanics that we will study, it may always be considered that the Center of
Masses coincides with the Center of Gravity (constant g)
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Chapter 0. Procedures
only happens if the controls are reversible. The hydraulic servo actuators
are not reversible).
150. Heading: φ is the angle of the velocity vector with the Xh axis.
151. Glide Slope: during the approximation for landing, the aircraft ap-
proaches the runway according to a trajectory whose inclination is ap-
◦ ◦
proximately γ ≈ −3 or γ ≈ −2 . This is the Glide Slope angle.
152. Glide Slope (ILS Device): an electronic device emits a signal that
must be followed by the aircraft during an instrumental landing. This
signal depicts a straight line whose slope in relation to the aircraft denes
the Glide Slope.
153. Body Axes System (O, Xb, Y b, Zb): a system of coordinates whose
origin is xed at the aircraft center of gravity (CoG) and whose axes
remain xed with respect to the aircraft, moving and turning with it.
154. Local Horizon Axes System (O, XL, Y L, ZL): a system of coordi-
nates whose origin is xed at the aircraft center of gravity (CoG) and
whose axes remain parallel to the Earth-Centered Axes while the aircraft
moves.
156. Wind Axes System (O, Xw, Y w, Zw): a coordinate system whose ori-
gin is xed at the aircraft center of gravity (CoG) and whose Xw axis
coincides with the direction of the velocity vector.
158. Ceiling: the maximum altitude at which the aircraft can maintain the
steady levelled ight, for a given weight and with a given thrust. There
are several practical denitions for this characteristic value of an aircraft.
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0.0 Denitions
161. Disturbed Trajectory: the one followed by an aircraft after being dis-
turbed from its reference trajectory.
162. Trim Tab: small ap at the trailing edge of a control surface. When it
is deected, it forces the control surface to acquire and maintain a given
angle.
164. State Variables: in the equations of motion, the variables that are
submitted to the mathematical procedure of dierentiating.
Equivalent Speed: Ve =
p
165. σ(z) Vaero .
166. Aerodynamic Speed (Vaero ): it is the speed of the aircraft with respect
to the atmosphere. If the atmosphere is at rest with respect to the ground,
it is also equal to the speed with respect to the Earth-Centered Axes.
167. Non-dimensional Speed (u): ratio among the aircraft speed (V ) and
∗
a characteristic speed -the minimum drag speed (V )- for a given altitude
and weight.
v s
u
V u2 W K
u= with V∗ =
t
V∗ ρ S CD0
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Chapter 0. Procedures
171. Decision Speed: it is the maximum speed, during the take-o run, at
which it is possible to brake the aircraft, spending the available runway.
172. Lift-o Speed: speed at which the aircraft leaves the ground during
take-o (VLO ).
173. Corner Speed: speed at which the maximum lift coecient curve cuts
the maximum load factor curve. It appears when studying the aircraft
Turns.
175. Stall Speed: the lower speed at which an aircraft may maintain levelled
and steady horizontal ight.
177. Satellite Speed: speed of a satellite with respect to the Earth surface.
179. Inertial Speed: CoG speed with respect to the Earth-Centered Axes.
180. True Airspeed (or Aerodynamic Speed): aircraft speed with respect
to the atmosphere.
dV dγ
(a) Negligible accelerations: ≈ 0, ≈0
dt dt
(b) Small angle of trajectory slope.
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0.0 Denitions
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