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If the center of gravity is too far aft, the aircraft will be unstable. If it is too far forward, the aircraft will be excessively stable, which makes the aircraft "stiff" in pitch and hard for the pilot to bring the nose up for landing. Required control forces will be greater. Some aircraft have low stability to reduce trim drag.
To ensure stability for safe flight, an LSAS (Longitudinal Stability Augmentation System) was introduced to compensate for the MD-11's rather short horizontal stabilizer and ensure that the aircraft would remain stable. [8] However, there have been incidents in which the MD-11's relaxed stability caused an "inflight upset". [9]
This includes the human-machine interface. The way in which particular vehicle factors affect flying qualities has been studied in aircraft for decades, [3] and reference standards for the flying qualities of both fixed-wing aircraft [4] and rotary-wing aircraft [5] have been developed and are now in common use. These standards define a subset ...
An aircraft in cruise flight is typically speed stable. If speed increases, drag increases, which will reduce the speed back to equilibrium for its configuration and thrust setting. If speed decreases, drag decreases, and the aircraft will accelerate back to its equilibrium speed where thrust equals drag.
A Boeing 737 uses an adjustable stabilizer, moved by a jackscrew, to provide the required pitch trim forces. Generic stabilizer illustrated. A horizontal stabilizer is used to maintain the aircraft in longitudinal balance, or trim: [3] it exerts a vertical force at a distance so the summation of pitch moments about the center of gravity is zero. [4]
An Air Malta crewman performing a pre-flight inspection of an Airbus A320.. Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of aircraft and aviation infrastructure.
Most aircraft are designed to be stable and easily recoverable in such a situation; the aircraft will pitch nose-down so that the angle of attack of the wings is reduced to match the aircraft's current direction (known technically as the velocity vector), restoring normal airflow over the wings and control surfaces and enabling controlled flight.
A stable spiral mode will cause the aircraft to eventually return to a nominally "wings level" bank angle when the angle of the wings is disturbed to become off-level. [ note 4 ] Fig. 1: Uncompensated lift component produces a side force F y , which causes the aircraft to sideslip.