Forces, Moments, Center-of-Pressure, Trim, and Stability in General Formulation

Abstract

In this chapter, we provide the general formulations of forces, moments, the center-of-pressure, trim, and static stability for the three vehicle classes considered in this book.We believe that this is necessary because usually in the literature these entities are given only for slender aircraft configurations at small angle of attack.We begin with the moment equation and give then the general formulation of the center-of-pressure. Special considerations followof the static stability of bluff configurations, i.e., RV-NW’s, and of slender configurations, i.e., CAV’s and ARV’s. The chapter closes with some further contemplations of static stability and with the provision of coordinate transformations of forces.