Theoretical Study of Various Airplane Motions After Initial Disturbance

The present investigation may be considered as preliminary to the study of automatic stabilizers. We have sought to determine first how an airplane of average characteristics reacts against the principal disturbances it may encounter. Without entering into the general study of automatic stabilizers, the present work suggests the idea of a stabilizer whose sensitive member would be a wind vane or pressure plate. The elements considered as variable were the coefficients of static stability - that is, the derivatives of the coefficients of the moments with respect to the angles of attack and of yaw; these angles may be determined by the vanes.