Flight Dynamics of the flying wing

Abstract

Flying wings are one of the most promising concepts for the future of commercial aviation, regarding the market, technology and environmental driving factors. The research reported here is part of a long term project on the 300 seats category flying wings. In several previously published works the feasibility, efficient performance and airport compatibility of the concept have been assessed. The present paper concentrates on the flight dynamic aspects of the aircraft, which have been scarcely analyzed in open literature. The results obtained show that the flying wing configuration can be dynamically stable; however, the longitudinal and lateral directional oscillations decay so slowly that a stability augmentation system would be required to assure an acceptable dynamic response of the aircraft.