The lateral motion of aircraft, and in particular of inertially slender configurations

Abstract

The kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the lateral motion of aircraft are described and reduced to simple models. After a review of the typical lateral modes of traditional aircraft configurations it is shown that with modern low-aspect-ratio designs at higher incidences the lateral oscillation tends to degenerate into a simple roiling oscillation about the principal inertia axis, whereas the roll subsidence is increasingly dominated by yawing moments. The consequences of these phenomena from the point of view of the stability and control of such aircraft; described as inertially slender, are discussed in detail and approximate formulae are given, which permit the early assessment of the general trends in the stability and response characteristics of this class of aircraft.