Weight functions method for stability analysis applied as design tool for Hawker 800XP aircraft

Abstract

Abstract A new method for system stability analysis, the weight functions method, is applied to estimate the longitudinal and lateral stability of a Hawker 800XP aircraft. This paper assesses the application of the weight functions method to a real aircraft and a method validation with an eigenvalues stability analysis of the linear small-perturbation equations. The method consists of finding the weight functions that are equal to the number of differential equations required for system modelling. The aircraft’s stability is determined from the sign of the total weight function – the sign should be negative for a stable model. Aerodynamic coefficients and stability derivatives of the mid-size twin-engine corporate aircraft Hawker 800XP are obtained using the in-house FDerivatives code, recently developed at our laboratory of applied research in active controls, avionics and aeroservoelasticity LARCASE. The results are validated with the flight test data supplied by CAE Inc. for all considered flight cases. This aircraft model was chosen because it was part of a research project for FDerivatives code and continued with weight function method for stability analysis in order to develop a design tool, based only on the aircraft geometrical parameters for subsonic regime. The following flight cases are considered: Mach numbers = 0·4 and 0·5, altitudes = 3,000m, 5,000m, 8,000m and 10,000m, and angles-of-attack α = –5° to 20°.