What factors affect lateral stability?

There are four main design factors which make an airplane stable laterally – dihedral, keel effect, sweepback, and weight distribution.

How can aircraft stability be increased?

Moving the elevator down increases the effective camber across the horizontal tail plane, thereby increasing the aerodynamic lift at the rear of the aircraft and causing a nose-downward moment about the aircraft’s centre of gravity. Alternatively, an upward movement of the elevator induces a nose-up movement.

What causes static stability?

The fundamental requirement for static stability is that the aft surface must have greater authority (leverage) in restoring a disturbance than the forward surface has in exacerbating it. This leverage is a product of moment arm from the center of mass and surface area.

What is static stability and dynamic stability?

Static stability of an aircraft describes the tendency of and aircraft to retain its original position when subjected to unbalanced forces or moments acting on the aircraft. • Dynamic stability describes the form of motion an aircraft in static stability undergoes when it tries to return to its original position.

How does dihedral increase lateral stability?

Dihedral is the upward angle of an aircraft’s wings, which increases lateral stability in a bank by causing the lower wing to fly at a higher angle of attack than the higher wing. What it really means is that you can fly more hands off, even in turbulence.

How do you determine static stability?

If atmospheric structure is such that the cool (heavy) layer of air is under the warmer (lighter) layer, then that part of the atmosphere is said to be statically stable. If there is no wind shear, then a statically stable region is non-turbulent, because the air is “happy” where it is.

How does dihedral affect lateral static stability?

Dihedral is the upward angle of an aircraft’s wings, which increases lateral stability in a bank by causing the lower wing to fly at a higher angle of attack than the higher wing.

How does swept wing increase lateral stability?

Wing sweep will help promote lateral stability as figure 146 shows. When a swept-wing airplane is sideslipping, the wing toward the sideslip will experience a higher velocity normal to the wing’s leading edge than the wing away from the sideslip.

Why does stability increase with forward CG?

A forward CG with the increase in stability will make it easier to recover from a stall, however moving the CG forward will also increase drag and with drag comes a reduction in cruise speeds and fuel efficiency.

How is lateral stability affected by aft CG?

As the CG moves aft, a less stable condition occurs, which decreases the ability of the aircraft to right itself after maneuvering or turbulence.

How does CG affect stability?

The aircraft becomes less stable as the CG is moved rearward. This is because when the CG is moved rearward it causes an increase in the AOA. Therefore, the wing contribution to the aircraft’s stability is now decreased, while the tail contribution is still stabilizing.

How does forward CG affect stability?

Why does forward cg increase stability?

The relationship between aircraft performance and CG location is simple: by moving the CG forward and aft, you change the amount of tail down force and lift you need for stable flight. If you need more lift, you create more induced drag, and your performance goes down.

Is forward cg more stable?

This positive stability is what makes the airplane stable; the further forward the CG, the more stable the airplane becomes.