Aircraft Control

This chapter provides an overview of the subject of flight dynamics and control. The usual derivation of the equations of motion of an airplane assume that it is a rigid body, and that an earth‐fixed reference frame is inertial. Airplanes are maneuvered primarily through control of the angular accelerations, through control of the moments. The angular accelerations are used to orient the airplane with respect to the air mass, and with respect to an external object, such as another airplane or a runway. Aerodynamic flight controls are generally devices that can change the camber of a larger aerodynamic surface, or vary the incidence of an aerodynamic surface. The camber of an aerodynamic surface may be changed by a smaller flapping surface on either the leading or trailing edge of the larger surface. The position of zero deflection of the control effectors is completely arbitrary.