Aero Design Series – Airplane Stability Playlist

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Seven videos are up on airplane stability! Ever wonder why aiplanes have stabilizers on the aft of the tail? How do they work? Why are they there? Where does the center of gravity of the aircraft relative to the wings need to be in order for the stabilizers to work? By the end of this series, even if you’re not designing an airplane e.g. for a competition like SAE Aero Design, you’ll understand why for instance foam gliders don’t fly straight until you put the plastic weight clip on their nose and the stabilizers on the tail.

In this series, we focus on pitch stability in typical SAE Aero Design and Design/Build/Fly aircraft, using SOLIDWORKS for airplane model examples. The first 5 videos go into a qualitative understanding of pitch stability, starting from where we left off in the series on airfoils. The 6th and beyond add a layer of quantification for a deeper understanding of how CG and wing positioning affect stability for typical configurations. The 7th video is on a typical forward CG case. Look out for the next videos on aft CG cases, as well as qualitative discussion about other aspects of stability such as yaw, roll, coupled modes, and other configurations.

Check out the playlist below (the playlist button is in the top right of the video preview frame)

 

 

Matthew Gruber,

December 7th, 2020

Matthew Gruber

Matthew Gruber is an alumni of Concordia University's Aero Design and Design/Build/Fly teams in 2015 through 2017, having joined after gaining an interest in helicopters and airplanes from living in Alaska. Now is in his 3rd year in the airframe stress group of the 525 helicopter program at Bell and with 1 year of internships at Bombardier behind him, he credits the hands-on learning and team project experiences in SAE and D/B/F as the most formative in his path towards aerospace engineering. Being able to create in programs like SolidWorks and then to build into realization is one of the most rewarding aspects of engineering. In his spare time, Matt likes backcountry snowboarding with his family dogs, bicycling for commuting, mountain trails and touring, looking for music and hanging out with friends and family. For fun, for practice, and for a connection with the education and University communities and you the students, Matt is stoked to bring you these aero design video series.