Aerodynamic Essentials for Crew Station Design Teams

Introduction

This article provides a quick review of aerodynamic fundamentals with particular emphasis on large-swept wing transport aircraft (Figure 1). First the energy management and the flight envelope will be covered. Next, aerodynamic forces, dynamic stability, and axis control are discussed. A swept-wing turbine-powered aircraft behaves in certain predictable ways and these behaviors must be clearly understood in order to design effective mission performance aids for both normal engine operations as well as engine-out operations (also known as degraded propulsion system operations).

Figure 1.

The B-58 Hustler is an example of advanced aerodynamics

Flight Dynamics

The dynamic aspects of flight operations are important to understand. Aspects such as the forces, control features, energy states, and stability boundaries must be considered and will often require a serious amount of design and testing to get things right. This section covers energy management, load factor, and the aerodynamic flight envelope.