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National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Report - A Study of Airplane Maneuvers with Special Reference to Angular Velocities

This investigation was undertaken by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for
the purpose of increasing our knowledge on the behavior of the airplane during various maneu—
vers and to obtain values of the maximum angular velocities and accelerations in flight. The
method consisted in flying a. JN-lh airplane through various maneuvers while records were being
taken of the control position, the air speed, the angular velocity and the acceleration along the
Z axis. The results showed that the maximum angular velocity about the X axis occurred in a
spin and amounted to 2.43 radians per second, while about the Y axis the maximum was 0.96
radians per second in a barrel roll. The maximum angular acceleration about the X axis of
— 2.10 radians per (second)2 occurred in a spin, while the maximum about the Y axis was 1.40
radians per (second)’ when pulling suddenly out of a dive. These results have direct applica-
tion to the design of airplane parts, such as propeller shaft and instruments.

Up to the present time there seems to have been no systematic attempt made to study
the movements of an airplane while it is maneuvering or to record directly the angular velocity.
The work which has been done to obtain data of this kind has been either entirely based upon
theoretical deduction or made use of the observed length of the required by an airplane to
perform a given evolution.

For the purpose of obtaining actual data on angular velocities from an airplane in flight
an instrument was designed and constructed to record directly the angular velocity about a single
axis. This instrument in connection with several other recording instruments was installed in
a J N4h airplane and records were taken during a loop, spin, roll and when pulling sharply out of
a dive. Complete records from these instruments are shown in this report and should furnish
valuable information both to the pilot and to the designer.