Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T18:36:26.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Inherent Controllability of Aeroplanes

Notes Arising from Professor Bryan's Wilbur-Wright Memorial Lecture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2016

Extract

The first direct statement of the problem of controlling an aeroplane, without the permanent exercise of physical effort by the pilot, appears in this paper. During the state of transition from straight flying to flying in a circle, a pilot exerts a force to pull over the rudder and in the usual case it is necessary to maintain some force in order to make a continuous turn. Professor Bryan proposes the design of an aeroplane such that turning having been started, maintenance of turning is obtained without any effort being necessary to keep the rudder in position. So far as the pilot is concerned the same result would be obtained by balancing the control surfaces, but the effect on the aeroplane is quite different. In the case of balanced controls a lateral force is still exerted by the rudder and so stresses are introduced in the tail structure of the aeroplane ; on the other hand, in an inherently controllable aeroplane, there is no lateral force on the rudder when turning and, therefore, no stresses in the tail.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1916

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Note on page 11 * [An aeronautical form of the “scientific middleman” for which Grant Allen contended.— Editor].

Note on page 12 * The word “unnatural” is here used in a sense corresponding with “natural bank” and is intended to imply that the aeroplane would not make such movements automatically, however perfectly it may meet its conditions of design.

Note on page 12 † If the angle of bank, ϕ , is not zero, the angle of yaw is denned by the relation

Note on page 14 * Aeronautical Journal, p 56. Chapter II.

Note on page 15 * Aeronautical Journal, p 58. Section IV.

Note on page 15 † Lbid P. 60. Section V.

Note on page 17 * Nature. January 22nd, 1916, pp. 575-6—not here reproduced.—Editor.