Flight Dynamics of High Aspect-Ratio Flying Wings

High aspect ratio flying wing configurations have been seen to exhibit significant coupling between flight dynamic and aeroelastic modes. If this coupling is not accounted for during analysis and design, instabilities arising from these may be overlooked and may lead to loss of control during flight. In order to compare flight dynamic characteristics of a deformed flexible configuration to an equivalent rigid body configuration, this paper studies the flight dynamics of curved, rigid flying wings. Establishing a relationship between these two will make it possible to infer the flight dynamics of flexible flying wings from those of equivalent rigid wing configurations.