A historic review of canard configurationsThe first human-powered flight was achieved by a canard-configured aircraft (Wright Brothers). Although other canard concepts were flown with varying degrees of success over the years, the tail-aft configuration has dominated the aircraft market for both military and civil use. This paper reviews the development of canard aircraft with emphasis on stability and control, handling qualities, and operating problems. The results show that early canard concepts suffered adversely in flight behavior because of a lack of understanding of the sensitivities of these concepts to basic stability and control principles. Modern canard designs have been made competitive with tail-aft configurations by using appropriate handling qualities design criteria.
Document ID
19850061703
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Anderson, S. B. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Feistel, T. W. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)