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Reference frames[edit]
Main article: axes conventions

Three right-handed, Cartesian coordinate systems see frequent use in flight dynamics. The first
coordinate system has an origin fixed in the reference frame of the Earth:

Earth frame

Origin - arbitrary, fixed relative to the surface of the Earth

xE axis - positive in the direction of north

yE axis - positive in the direction of east

zE axis - positive towards the center of the Earth

In many flight dynamics applications, the Earth frame is assumed to be inertial with a flat xE,yEplane, though the Earth frame can also be considered a spherical coordinate system with origin at
the center of the Earth.
The other two reference frames are body-fixed, with origins moving along with the aircraft,
typically at the center of gravity. For an aircraft that is symmetric from right-to-left, the frames
can be defined as:

Body frame

Origin - airplane center of gravity

xb axis - positive out the nose of the aircraft in the plane of symmetry of the
aircraft

zb axis - perpendicular to the xb axis, in the plane of symmetry of the aircraft,

positive below the aircraft

yb axis - perpendicular to the xb,zb-plane, positive determined by the right-hand

rule (generally, positive out the right wing)

Wind frame

Origin - airplane center of gravity

xw axis - positive in the direction of the velocity vector of the aircraft relative to
the air

zw axis - perpendicular to the xw axis, in the plane of symmetry of the aircraft,

positive below the aircraft

yw axis - perpendicular to the xw,zw-plane, positive determined by the right hand

rule (generally, positive to the right)

Asymmetric aircraft have analogous body-fixed frames, but different conventions must be used
to choose the precise directions of the x and z axes.
The Earth frame is a convenient frame to express aircraft translational and rotational kinematics.
The Earth frame is also useful in that, under certain assumptions, it can be approximated as
inertial. Additionally, one force acting on the aircraft, weight, is fixed in the +zE direction.
The body frame is often of interest because the origin and the axes remain fixed relative to the
aircraft. This means that the relative orientation of the Earth and body frames describes the
aircraft attitude. Also, the direction of the force of thrust is generally fixed in the body frame,
though some aircraft can vary this direction, for example by thrust vectoring.
The wind frame is a convenient frame to express the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on
an aircraft. In particular, the net aerodynamic force can be divided into components along the
wind frame axes, with the drag force in the xw direction and the lift force in the zw direction.
In addition to defining the reference frames, the relative orientation of the reference frames can
be determined. The relative orientation can be expressed in a variety of forms, including:

Direction cosine or rotation matrices

Euler angles

Quaternions

The various Euler angles relating the three reference frames are important to flight dynamics.
Many Euler angle conventions exist, but all of the rotation sequences presented below use the zy'-x" convention. This convention corresponds to a type of Tait-Bryan angles, which are

commonly referred to as Euler angles. This convention is described in detail below for the roll,
pitch, and yaw Euler angles that describe the body frame orientation relative to the Earth frame.
The other sets of Euler angles are described below by analogy.
To transform from the Earth frame to the body frame using Euler angles, the following rotations
are done in the order prescribed. First, rotate the Earth frame axes xE and yEaround the zE axis
by the yaw angle . This results in an intermediate reference frame with axes denoted x',y',z',
where z'=zE. Second, rotate the x' and z' axes around the y' axis by the pitch angle . This results
in another intermediate reference frame with axes denoted x",y",z", where y"=y'. Finally, rotate
the y" and z" axes around the x" axis by the roll angle . The reference frame that results after
the three rotations is the body frame.
Based on the rotations and axes conventions above, the yaw angle is the angle between north
and the projection of the aircraft longitudinal axis onto the horizontal plane, the pitch angle is
the angle between the aircraft longitudinal axis and horizontal, and the roll angle represents a
rotation around the aircraft longitudinal axis after rotating by yaw and pitch.
To transform from the Earth frame to the wind frame, the three Euler angles are the bank angle ,
the flight path angle , and the heading angle . When performing the rotations described above
to obtain the wind frame from the Earth frame, (,,) are analogous to (,,), respectively. The
heading angle is the angle between north and the horizontal component of the velocity vector,
which describes which direction the aircraft is moving relative to cardinal directions. The flight
path angle is the angle between horizontal and the velocity vector, which describes whether the
aircraft is climbing or descending. The bank angle represents a rotation of the lift force around
the velocity vector, which may indicate whether the airplane is turning.
To transform from the wind frame to the body frame, the two Euler angles are the angle of
attack and the sideslip angle . When performing the rotations described earlier to obtain the
body frame from the wind frame, (,) are analogous to (,), respectively; the angle analogous
to in this transformation is always zero. The sideslip angle is the angle between the velocity
vector and the projection of the aircraft longitudinal axis onto the xw,zw-plane, which describes
whether there is a lateral component to the aircraft velocity, also known as sideslip. The angle of
attack is the angle between the xw,yw-plane and the aircraft longitudinal axis and, among other
things, is an important variable in determining the magnitude of the force of lift.
In analyzing the stability of an aircraft, it is usual to consider perturbations about a nominal
equilibrium position. So the analysis would be applied, for example, assuming:

Straight and level flight

Turn at constant speed
Approach and landing
Takeoff
The speed, height and trim angle of attack are different for each flight condition, in addition,
the aircraft will be configured differently, e.g. at low speed flaps may be deployed and
the undercarriage may be down.
Except for asymmetric designs (or symmetric designs at significant sideslip), the longitudinal
equations of motion (involving pitch and lift forces) may be treated independently of the
lateral motion (involving roll and yaw).
The following considers perturbations about a nominal straight and level flight path.
To keep the analysis (relatively) simple, the control surfaces are assumed fixed throughout
the motion, this is stick-fixed stability. Stick-free analysis requires the further complication
of taking the motion of the control surfaces into account.
Furthermore, the flight is assumed to take place in still air, and the aircraft is treated as
a rigid body.

(-0.995, 0.000i) ( 0.913, 0.000i) (-0.068,-0.106i) (-0.068, 0.106i)

( 0.100, 0.000i) (-0.373, 0.000i) (-0.221, 0.088i) (-0.221,-0.088i)
(-0.010, 0.000i) ( 0.152, 0.000i) ( 0.085, 0.442i) ( 0.085,-0.442i)
( 0.001, 0.000i) (-0.062, 0.000i) ( 0.851, 0.000i) ( 0.851, 0.000i)

V=[-0.995 0.1 -0.01 0.001; 0.913 -0.373 0.152 -0.062; -0.068-0.106i -0.221+0.088i
0.085+0.422i 0.851; -0.068+0.106i -0.221-0.088i 0.085-0.422i 0.851]