FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
3
rd
YEAR

LATONA NAHID AKTARE HOUSSAINE

ACS 324
Flight Laboratory Course
Report


Dr. Tony Dodd





1. Introduction
This report is based on the study of the flight testing of a Jetstream of empty mass 4990kg and
analysis performed for longitudinal static and maneuvering stability. The MTOW varies upon
different individuals in distinctive groups hence variation of the

(center of gravity) in each

particular flight tests. The end goal of these flight tests is to develop a relationship between the
stick forces and control movements required to maneuver the aircraft at different rates.
2. Purposes of Flight Testing
Longitudinal static and maneuver stability are trivial to many aircraft to understand the
relationship between the aircrafts handling qualities based on input stick forces and control
movements. The FAA Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) place several allowances for the
longitudinal static stability of certified aircrafts. With

location having the largest influence on

the stability of the aircraft, the FARs part 25.175(c) [1] stipulates that the column force placed on
the flight controls may not exceed one pound for each 6 knots increase in airspeed from the
trimmed condition. Lastly, the FARs part 25 ensures that for conventional aircraft without
stability augmentation (such as test plane Jetstream) have positive static longitudinal stability
which is demonstrated in the flight. The speed stability means that a pull force is needed for
flight below the trimmed cruise for flight above the trimmed cruise speed.

3. Longitudinal Static Stability
3.1) Importance of Longitudinal Static Stability
An aircraft has positive longitudinal static stability if its initial response in pitch is to return to
equilibrium around its trim point after displacement by a gust or by the temporary movement by
the elevator control. Figure 1 illustrates an aircraft disturbed by atmospheric turbulence and
executes the static stability scenario.








When you trim an aircraft to fly at a given coefficient of lift,

, but then push or pull on the

stick and hold it there in order to fly at a different

(or the equivalent angle of attack or

airspeed) youre working against the aircrafts inherent stability. The aircraft generates a
restoring moment thats proportional, if you dont trim back, to the force you feel against your
hand. The faster that force rises with stick deflection, the more stable your aircraft. Classical
Figure 1: Credits to NASA schematic for static stability.
stability depends on the distance between the aircrafts center of gravity and a set of neutral
points farther aft along the longitudinal axis (the larger the distance between

and neutral point

the higher the stability). [2]
3.2) Discussion of Longitudinal Static Stability
Stick fixed stability is concerned with calculating the trim angles and stability of an aircraft
with the control surfaces held at a constant location. Hence, no account is made of the control
forces that the pilot must provide. This simplifies the analysis such that only the forces and
moments acting on the whole aircraft need to be in equilibrium for a trim condition.










Figure 2 shows the relationship amid the elevator deflection with respect to the lift coefficient.
Henceforth, the variations of the slopes refer to the static stability of the aircraft. Figure 3
determines the stick fixed neutral point which is 40 since it is

location where

.









-8
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
0 0.5 1 1.5
E
l
e
v
a
t
o
r

D
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

[

]

(
d
e
g
)

Lift Coefficient,

Static Stability with Stick Fixed
Group E
Group F
Group D
Group C
Group B
Group A
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
-5 5 15 25 35 45

C
g
Position (%)

Longitudinal Static Stability
Fwd Cg and
Aft Cg from NP
Neutral Point
K
n
Figure 2: Stick Fixed Static Stability.
Figure 3: Graph to determine Neutral Point for controls fixed.
To achieve stability for the Jetstream,

, usually dude to high elevator control forces

normally exist with a Fwd

(Forward

) location due to the increased stabilizer deflection

required to balance the aircraft. From Figure 3 its eminent, as

moves further aft, K

n
decreases
making the aircraft statically unstable. At a given

position, an aircrafts static stick-fixed

stability is proportional to the rate of change of elevator angle with respect to aircraft lift
coefficient. In other words, the more stable the aircraft is (the larger the static margin) the farther
you have to haul back or push on the stick. As

moves rearward, less stick movement is

needed to produce an equivalent change in

and airspeed thus less spinning of the trim wheel is

necessary to trim out the resulting forces. If the

is brought back to the stick-fixed static

neutral point, the change in stick position needed to sustain a change of airspeed is zero. Once
youve moved the stick to attain a new angle of attack, you can put it back to where it was
before.
Figure 4 demonstrates the static stability for controls free. Stick Free indicates that the pilot
has released the controls. Therefore, the elevator may move to any location. In equilibrium state,
the controls will settle in a location where the hinge moments are zero.

















-5
0
5
10
15
20
0 0.5 1 1.5
T
r
i
m

T
a
b

D
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

[

]

(
d
e
g
)

Lift Coefficient,

Static Stability with Stick Free
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
y = -0.385x + 21.671
R = 0.9976
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
10 20 30 40 50 60
d

/
d
C
L

C
g
Position (%)
Longitudinal Static Stability, Stick Free
Series1
Neutral Point
K
l
n
Figure 4: Controls Free Static Stability Graph.
Figure 5: Graph to determine Neutral Point for controls free.
A Enter at test altitude, trimmed, constant thrust
B Climb until airspeed is reduced
C Level out, recording airspeed
D Dive back down to initial altitude
E Resume level flight without exceeding g-limit
of the aircraft
The stick-free static neutral point is the

position at which the aircraft exhibits neutral static

stability which is 56.3 (slope of the CM/CL stability curve = 0) with the elevator allowed to
float. Figure 5 showed how the longitudinal stick force is necessary to move an aircraft off its
trim point decreases as the center of gravity moves aft. This is the logical result of the
accompanying decrease in static stability. When the aircrafts

lies on the stick-free neutral

point, no change in force is needed to change airspeeds. Aerodynamic balance used to reduce
hinge moments, and thus reduce the force a pilot has to apply to deflect the elevator, also reduces
floating tendency and therefore increases the stick-free static stability margin. The stick-free
neutral point usually lies ahead of the stick-fixed point. Just how far ahead depends directly on
how much the elevator tends to float.
4. Longitudinal Maneuver Stability
4.1) Importance of Longitudinal Maneuver Stability
Longitudinal maneuvering stability is especially important to many aircraft to understand the
relationship between the aircrafts handling qualities based on input stick forces and movements.
This is important to high performance fighter aircraft that undergo significant loading and
require high pitching moments to achieve very fast pitch rates in maneuvers.





There are two methods of testing the pitch up maneuver and collecting data for longitudinal
maneuvering stability analysis. Stick fixed and stick free refers to stick movements per g and
stick forces per g respectively. The stick fixed will be the focus of this Pull-up analysis as this
was the method used during the flight testing. [3]
4.2) Discussion of Longitudinal Maneuver Stability
This analysis comprise of examining the longitudinal maneuver stability via a steady pullout at
constant thrust/velocity. Figure 7 demonstrates the aircraft behavior for small and large elevator
input creating low and high pitch rate resulting in low and high g force respectively.



Figure 6: Created by Nahid Latona: Schematic of Longitudinal Maneuver Stability.










Figure 8 illustrates the controls fixed maneuver stability of the Jetstream. The aft shift of the
corresponding maneuver points reflects the stabilizing effect of pitch damping.












The more rearward stick fixed maneuver point is the

position at which stick movement per g

becomes zero (

). Therefore, the stick fixed maneuver point 52.8, K

m
, is a distance aft the
stick neutral point. According to Figure 8, less stick force input is required a cg moves aft
nonetheless if cg is found behind the maneuver point then the aircraft will be unstable resulting
in increase of pitch rates.
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
E
l
e
v
a
t
o
r

D
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

[

]

(
d
e
g
)

Normal Acceleration [a
z
] (g)
Graph of against a
z

Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Figure 7: Controls fixed maneuver stability.
y = 0.1677x - 8.8578
R = 0.996
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
15 25 35 45 55
d

/
d
g

Cg Position (%)
Longitudinal Maneuver Stability, Controls
Fixed
Series1
Maneuver
Point
K
m
Figure 8: Graph to determine Maneuver Point for controls fixed.
Figure 9 illustrates the amount of stick force per g demonstrating the stick free maneuver
stability of the aircraft.










For handling safety the stick force required to pull high g should be appreciable to avoid
accidentally exceeding the structural limitations of the aircraft. A typical value for a non-
aerobatic aircraft is usually of the order of 2.0g.










The stick force needed to pull a given g remains the same at any trim speed. The maneuver point
69.2 would results upon

. Suppose the elevators effectiveness increases with airspeed,

you dont have to deflect it as much to produce a given pitch rate and load factor as you do at
lower speeds. Less deflection would mean lower forces, except that control surface hinge
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
S
t
i
c
k

F
o
r
c
e

[
P

]

(
N
)

Normal Acceleration [a
z
] (g)
Controls Free, Maneuver Stability
Group A
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Figure 9: Controls free Maneuver Stability.
y = -2.2056x + 152.63
R = 0.9957
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 20 40 60 80
d
P

/
d
g

Cg Position (%)
Longitudinal Maneuver Stability, Stick Free
Series1
Maneuver Point
k
l

m
Figure 10: Graph to determine Maneuver Point for controls free.
moments which are what the pilot feels through the control system gearing; also increase with
airspeed. The decrease in required deflection is canceled out by the increase in hinge moment,
and the stick force required for a given g load is the same at all trim velocities (at a constant
altitude and

). Compressibility tends to produce an increase in stick force-per-g.

Conclusion
It might be argued that all aspects of a new aircraft's design can now be investigated on the
ground via wind tunnels and by mathematical modeling/ simulation by computer. Thus it may be
wondered why flight testing is required at all.

Many reasons could be advanced, but perhaps the principal ones are that:

Adequate replication on the ground of flight conditions is often impracticable, if not impossible
(e.g., it would not be possible, on the ground, to subject a fuel system to the range of acceleration
forces (g) with which it must cope in flight)

Particular flight conditions may be insufficiently well defined to be simulated (e.g., the flow
field round an aircraft carrier may be unknown, or too complex to model).

All but the simplest of aircraft incorporate many systems whose interactions are complex: the
only practicable way of investigating those interactions is through flight testing of the complete
aircraft.

Flight test data is essential to improve the accuracy of the models and simulations which are
becoming increasingly important in the development and certification processes. [4]

Thus flight testing under operationally representative conditions remains the only safe and
convincing means of proving, in the "real world", that the man/ machine combination can
achieve the "performance" required.

















References

1. Date Accessed: 17
th
March 2012
Federal Aviation Administration
FAA Regulations Section

2. Introduction to Flight Test Engineering
F.N. Stoliker
The Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) of NATO
ISBN: 92-837-1126-2

3. Date Accessed: 17
th
March 2012
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
Stability of Aircrafts
NASA

4. Performance and Stability of Aircraft
J.B. Russell MSc, MRAeS, CEng
Centre for Aeronautics
City University
London
ISBN: 0-340-631708