3020. Measuring Mass Properties of Aircraft Control Surfaces
$20.00
SAWE Members get a $200 store credit each year.*
*Store credit coupon available at checkout, click the button in your shopping cart to apply the coupon.
Not applicable to SAWE textbooks and current conference technical papers.
Paper
Abstract
Flutter is of great concern to any pilot, since excessive flutter has caused a number of aircraft to lose control and crash. Although any surface on an aircraft which is exposed to airflow can experience flutter, the most common type of flutter involves the control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators, and rudders. The mass properties of these control surfaces are very critical and have to be measured with great care to make certain that flutter is minimized. Many mass properties engineers ignore product of inertia when measuring control surfaces. We suspect that these engineers will be surprised to discover that the product of inertia unbalance of the control surface can be the key element in eliminating flutter, and that it is vital to measure this quantity.
