Flight Dynamics of High-Aspect-Ratio Flying Wings: Effect of Large Trim Deformation

An integrated model developed by Patil and Hodges to understand the effect of nonlinear static aeroelastic deformation on the flight-aeroelastic stability of a flexible flying wing configuration, was reported. A few additions were made to the control allocation and the mathematical modeling to trim the airplane in turning flight. Linear stability analysis was carried out by computing the eigenvalues of the linearized system. These eigenvalues indicate the stability of the system for small perturbations about the trim point. It is seen that the root-locus plot of the flight dynamic eigenvalues of the deformed configuration track those of the flexible configuration, whereas those of the undeformed configuration do not. For a high-aspect-ratio flying wing configuration, static aeroelastic deformation is shown to account for the predominant discrepancy between the flight dynamic characteristics at trim predicted using a flexible model, and the flight dynamic characteristics predicted using a rigid body model.