A New Three-Dimensional Aerodynamic Attitude Flight Envelope

A new three-dimensional (3-D) space symmetric level aerodynamic attitude flight envelope is introduced in this project. The 3-D aerodynamic attitude envelope is an angle of attack vs. sideslip angle vs. altitude region which describes the extent of where an aircraft can sustain a steady slipping horizontal flight condition at different altitudes. The new envelope is thus a generalized extension of the more common speed-altitude symmetric level flight envelope. This new envelope can be used for design requirements, dynamic analysis, control synthesis, or performance comparison. Moreover, this envelope provides enhanced insight into trimability-controllability and ceiling limitations within the aircraft design model. The aerodynamic attitude flight envelope is constructed for a six degree of freedom nonlinear simulation model of a high-performance aircraft. The constructed envelope is found to be symmetric with respect to positive vs. negative sideslip values, due to the adapted and symmetrized aerodynamic model database by the author.