Abstract
The dynamic stability of a light aircraft is very crucial at all phases of flight. This may include takeoff, climb, cruise, loiter, descend and landing where the aircraft is subjected to intense pressure from aerodynamic forces and moments. Control surfaces and flight control systems are therefore, used to control and pilot the aircraft to safe flight. The dynamic behavior of the aircraft can be simulated if an appropriate model of the aircraft is generated with a view to predicting the amount of force required to control the actuators that would actuate the control surfaces and make the aircraft stable from a disturbance. In this research paper, the dynamic stability of a light aircraft called the Air Beetle (ABT- 18) was investigated where the geometry of the aircraft was inputted in Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) Software using X downstream, Y outright wing and Z up coordinates. The objective was to investigate how stable the aircraft will be on the longitudinal and lateral directions respectively. A model of the aircraft was created with dimensionless aerodynamic coefficients based on trim flight condition of cruise speed 51.4m/s at 12,000ft altitude. The aircraft airframe configuration and specification was inputted in AVL and aerodynamic stability coefficients were produced. The simulation was carried out in the graphic environment of Matlab Simulink, where block models of the aircraft were formed. Thereafter, transfer functions were obtained from the solutions of the light aircraft equations of motions. Pole placement method was used to test the dynamic stability of the aircraft and it was found to be laterally stable on the longitudinal axis and longitudinally stable on the lateral axis. Thus, the dynamic stability controls of the aircraft were achieved in autopilot design by implementing PID controllers’ successive loops and it was found that the ABT-18 aircraft had satisfied the conditions necessary for longitudinal and lateral stabilities.
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