Steady Aircraft Flight and Performance
"Steady Aircraft Flight and Performance"
by N. Harris McClamroch
“Steady Aircraft Flight and Performance is very well written, and it contains many useful figures and illustrations. The level of presentation is readily accessible to its intended audience--undergraduate students in aerospace engineering--and the numerous examples and problems help solidify the concepts presented in the book. MATLAB code is included for many problems, facilitating the transition from concepts to computation.” –Robert F. Stengel, Princeton University
“This book is right on the mark. McClamroch’s theoretical developments are, as usual, very rigorous and detailed.” Eric Feron, Georgia Institute of Technology
This undergraduate textbook offers a unique introduction to steady flight and performance for fixed-wing aircraft from a twenty-first-century flight systems perspective. Emphasizing the interplay between mathematics and engineering, it fully explains the fundamentals of aircraft flight and develops the basic algebraic equations needed to obtain the conditions for gliding flight, level flight, climbing and descending flight, and turning flight. It covers every aspect of flight performance, including maximum and minimum air speed, maximum climb rate, minimum turn radius, flight ceiling, maximum range, and maximum endurance.
Steady Aircraft Flight and Performance features in-depth case studies of an executive jet and a general aviation propeller-driven aircraft, and uses MATLAB to compute and illustrate numerous flight performance measures and flight envelopes for each. Requiring only sophomore-level calculus and physics, it also includes a section on translational flight dynamics that makes a clear connection between steady flight and flight dynamics, thereby providing a bridge to further study.
- Offers the best introduction to steady aircraft flight and performance
- Provides a comprehensive treatment of the full range of steady flight conditions
- Covers steady flight performance and flight envelopes, including maximum and minimum air speed, maximum climb rate, minimum turn radius, and flight ceiling
- Uses mathematics and engineering to explain aircraft flight
- Features case studies of actual aircraft, illustrated using MATLAB
- Seamlessly bridges steady flight and translational flight dynamics
N. Harris McClamroch is professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. He has been an educator and researcher in flight dynamics and control for more than forty years.
Publication Information
Princeton University Press
Cloth $65.00. ISBN: 978-0-691-14719-2
Publication date March 3, 2011
415 pp., 23 halftones, 70 line illustrations, 7” x 10”
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Aircraft Components and Subsystems
1.1 Aircraft subsystems for conventional fixed-wing aircraft
1.2 Aerodynamic control surfaces
1.3 Aircraft propulsion systems
1.4 Aircraft structural systems
1.5 Air data and flight instrumentation
1.6 Guidance, navigation and control.
1.7 Flight control computers
1.8 Communication systems
1.9 Aircraft pilots
1.10 Autonomous aircraft
1.11 Interconnection and integration of flight systems
2 Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics
2.1 Fundamental properties of air
2.2 Standard atmosphere model
2.3 Aerodynamics fundamentals
2.4 Aerodynamics of flow over a wing
2.5 Wing geometry
2.6 Problems
3 Aircraft Translational Kinematics, Attitude, Aerodynamic Forces, and Moments
3.1 Cartesian frames
3.2 Aircraft translational kinematics
3.3 Aircraft attitude and the translational kinematics
3.4 Translational kinematics for flight in a fixed vertical plane
3.5 Translational kinematics for flight in a fixed horizontal plane
3.6 Small angle approximations
3.7 Coordinated flight
3.8 Clarification of Bank Angles
3.9 Aerodynamic forces
3.10 Aerodynamic moments
3.11 Problems
4 Propulsion Systems
4.1 Steady thrust and power relations
4.2 Jet engines
4.3 propeller-driven by internal combustion engine
4.4 Turboprop engines
4.5 Throttle as a pilot input
4.6 Problems
5 Prelude to Steady Flight Analysis
5.1 Aircraft forces and moments
5.2 Steady flight equations
5.4 Steady level turning flight
5.5 Flight constraints
5.6 Aircraft case studies
5.7 Characteristics of an executive jet aircraft
5.8 Characteristics of a single engine propeller-driven GA aircraft
5.9 Characteristics of an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV)
5.10 Problems
6 Aircraft Steady Gliding Longitudinal Flight
6.1 Steady gliding longitudinal flight
6.2 Steady gliding longitudinal flight analysis
6.3 Minimum glide angle
6.4 Minimum descent rate
6.5 Maximum glide angle
6.6 Maximum descent rate
6.7 Steady gliding longitudinal flight envelopes
6.8 Steady gliding longitudinal flight: executive jet aircraft
6.9 Steady gliding longitudinal flight: GA aircraft
6.10 Conclusions
6.11 Problems
7 Aircraft Cruise in Steady Level Longitudinal Flight
7.1 Steady level longitudinal flight
7.2 Steady level longitudinal flight analysis
7.3 Jet aircraft steady level longitudinal flight performance
7.4 GA aircraft steady level longitudinal flight performance
7.5 Steady level longitudinal flight: executive jet aircraft
7.6 Steady level longitudinal flight envelopes: executive jet aircraft
7.7 Steady level longitudinal flight: GA aircraft
7.8 Steady level longitudinal flight envelopes: GA aircraft
7.9 Conclusions
7.10 Problems
8 Aircraft Steady Longitudinal Flight
8.1 Steady longitudinal flight
8.2 Steady longitudinal flight analysis
8.3 Jet aircraft steady longitudinal flight performance
8.4 GA aircraft steady longitudinal flight performance
8.5 Steady climbing longitudinal flight: executive jet aircraft
8.6 Steady descending longitudinal flight: executive jet aircraft
8.7 Steady longitudinal flight envelopes: executive jet aircraft
8.8 Steady climbing longitudinal flight: GA aircraft
8.9 Steady descending longitudinal flight: GA aircraft
8.10 Steady longitudinal flight envelopes: GA aircraft
8.11 Conclusions
8.12 Problems
9 Aircraft Steady Level Turning Flight
9.1 Turns by side-slipping
9.2 Steady level banked turning flight
9.3 Steady level banked turning flight analysis
9.4 Jet aircraft steady level turning flight performance
9.5 GA aircraft steady level turning flight performance
9.6 Steady level turning flight: executive jet aircraft
9.7 Steady level turning flight envelopes: executive jet aircraft
9.8 Steady level turning flight: GA aircraft
9.9 Steady level turning flight envelopes: GA aircraft
9.10 Conclusions
9.11 Problems
10 Aircraft Steady Turning Flight
10.1 Steady banked turns
10.2 Steady banked turning flight analysis
10.3 Jet aircraft steady turning flight performance
10.4 GA aircraft steady turning flight performance
10.5 Steady climbing and turning flight: executive jet aircraft
10.6 Steady descending and turning flight: executive jet aircraft
10.7 Steady turning flight envelopes: executive jet aircraft
10.8 Steady climbing and turning flight: GA aircraft
10.9 Steady descending and turning flight: GA aircraft
10.10 Steady turning flight envelopes: GA aircraft
10.11 Conclusions
10.12 Problems
11 Aircraft Range and Endurance in Steady Flight
11.1 Fuel consumption
11.2 Steady flight background
11.3 Range and endurance of a jet aircraft in steady level longitudinal flight
11.4 Range and endurance of a GA aircraft in steady level longitudinal flight
11.5 Range and endurance of a jet aircraft in a steady level turn
11.6 Range and endurance of a GA aircraft in a steady level turn
11.7 Range and endurance of a jet aircraft in a steady turn
11.8 Range and endurance of a GA aircraft in a steady turn
11.9 Maximum range and maximum endurance: executive jet aircraft
11.10 Maximum range and maximum endurance: GA aircraft
11.11 Conclusions
11.12 Problems
12 Aircraft Maneuvers and Flight Planning
12.1 Static flight stability
12.2 Flight maneuvers
12.3 Pilot inputs that achieve a desired flight condition
12.4 Flight plans defined by a sequence of waypoints
12.5 A flight planning problem: executive jet aircraft
12.6 A flight planning problem: GA aircraft
12.7 Conclusions
12.8 Problems
13 From Steady Flight to Flight Dynamics
13.1 Flight dynamics assumptions
13.2 Differential equations for the translational flight dynamics
13.3 Including engine characteristics and fuel consumption
13.4 Differential equations for longitudinal translational flight dynamics
13.5 Differential equations for takeoff and landing
13.6 Steady flight and the translational flight dynamics
13.7 Dynamic flight stability
13.8 Computing dynamic flight performance measures and flight envelopes
13.9 Flight simulations: executive jet aircraft
13.10 Flight simulations: GA aircraft
13.11 Conclusions
13.12 Problems
A Standard Atmosphere Model
B End-of-Chapter Problems
B.1 Executive jet aircraft
B.2 Single engine, propeller-driven general aviation aircraft
B.3 Uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV)
References
Index
Matlab Code
Numerous Matlab m-files are listed in the book Steady Aircraft Flight and Performance. For user convenience, these m-files can be downloaded according to the chapters in which they appear. Each download is a text document that contains the name of each m-file in that chapter followed by the Matlab code indicated in the text. The user will need to create individual text files for each listing with the file named according to Matlab convention, e.g. MatlabFile.m.
Errata
Please send errata that you identify to the author via email nhm@umich.edu.
