Air Loads

WHAT

Air loads are the resultants of the pressure distribution over the surfaces of the skin produced by steady
flight, maneuvers or gust conditions. Generally, these resultants cause direct loads, bending, shear and
torsion in all parts of the structure in addition to local, normal pressure loads imposed on the skin.

We considered aircraft loads resulting from prescribed maneuvers in the longitudinal plane of
symmetry. Other types of in-flight load are caused by air turbulence. The movements of the air in
turbulence are generally known as gusts and produce changes in wing incidence, thereby subjecting the
aircraft to sudden or gradual increases or decreases in lift from which normal accelerations result. These
may be critical for large, high speed aircraft and may possibly cause higher loads than control initiated
maneuvers.

Air Loads - Pressure distribution on aircraft during maneuver, gust, control surface deflection, buffet,
span wise and chord wise load distribution.

Inertia Loads - Acceleration, rotation, vibration, flutter

During flight, you have quite a number of tasks and responsibilities:

 You are either speeding up, slowing down, or maintaining constant speed.
 You are either climbing, descending, or maintaining constant altitude.
 You are either turning left, turning right, or maintaining constant direction of travel.
 You are either slipping left, slipping right, or maintaining coordinated flight.
 You have control over the flaps, landing gear, various engine controls, et cetera.
 You must keep track of where you are, so you don’t miss your destination, run into
obstructions, or whatever.
 You need to keep track of weather conditions.
 You must keep watch at all times1 to make sure you see and avoid other aircraft.
 Et cetera.
The first three items on this list are what I call the “fundamentals” of maneuvering.

There are four fundamental basic flight maneuvers upon which all flying tasks are based:

 straight-and-level flight,
 turns,
 climbs, and
 descents.
flight maneuver - a maneuver executed by an aircraft
bank a flight maneuver; aircraft tips laterally about its longitudinal axis (especially inturning); "the plane
went into a steep bank"
chandelle a flight maneuver consisting of a steep climbing turn executed to gain altitude while changing
direction
loop-the-loop, loop - a flight maneuver; aircraft flies a complete circle in the vertical plane
roll a flight maneuver; aircraft rotates about its longitudinal axis without changing direction or losing alti
tude
sideslip, slip - a flight maneuver; aircraft slides sideways in the air

abort
To cancel a flight mission, either before takeoff or in the air, because of aircraft or other problems.To
terminate a preplanned aircraft maneuver.

ACM
Air Combat Maneuvering. US Navy term for techniques used in air combat. See also BFM.

aerobatic box
At an aerobatic competition, the region of space to which all maneuvers are restricted.

aerobatic sequence
A series of planned aerobatic maneuvers. Often recorded in Aresti notation.

Aresti Notation
A graphical notation, not unlike choreographic notation, used for describing aerobatic sequences.
Developed by Spanish pilot Jose L. Aresti.

BFM
Basic Fighter Maneuvers. US Air Force term for techniques used in air combat. See also ACM.

Cobra Maneuver
A rare maneuver where the nose of the aircraft is brought up past the vertical, then rapidly thrust back
down to a level position, like a striking cobra. Developed by test pilots of the Russian-built SU-27 fighter
aircraft.

coordinated turn
A combination of control inputs that allow a maximally efficient turn.

Cuban Eight
Two loops in opposite directions forming a vertical figure-8 shape in the sky. Sometimes performed in
the horizontal plane.

G
A unit of force equal to the force of gravity times one. See Load Factor.
greyout
Greyout occurs when gravitational stresses impair the flow of blood to your brain. Loss of vision and,
eventually, consciousness, can occur when you pull heavy G's.

Immelman
An airborne maneuver where the aircraft climbs vertically, then changes to a new direction of horizontal
flight. Named after the WWI German pilot who perfected it as a combat maneuver.

jinking
Erratic evasive maneuvering of an aircraft to avoid incoming fire.

joinup
An airborne maneuver whereby two aircraft join to fly in formation, or for air-to-air refueling.

knife-edge flight
Level flight with the airplane on its side, so that the wings are perpendicular to gravity.

Load Factor
The proportion between lift and weight commonly called "g."

loop
Any of a class of maneuvers in which an aircraft describes a closed figure (usually a circle), its pitch
attitude passing evenly through 360 degrees.

Lumcevak
A violent aerobatics maneuver where the aircraft is forced to fall rapidly end over end after a vertical
stall.

One-eighty
An overhead maneuver consisting of a 180-degree turn from upwind to downwind, prior to landing.

orbit
A circular holding pattern around a target or other ground reference point.

over-the-top
1. Above the layer of clouds or other obscuring phenomena forming the ceiling.
2. Often used to indicate the top of a loop.

pop up
To climb rapidly.

redout
Redout occurs when negative gravitational stresses force blood to the brain. The excess blood causes
ones vision to go red.

roll
Any maneuver where the aircraft is rotated on its fuselage axis.
rudder turn
Turning with the use of rudders alone.

scissors
A maneuver where the aircraft alternatively banks left and right, criss-crossing its flight path. Called a
"rolling scissors" when combined with a roll at each change of direction.

snap roll
A roll produced by stalling one wing of an aircraft during level flight.

spin
A deep, spiraling dive, usually uncontrollable; any manuever in which one wing is stalled and one is not.

Split-S
An S-shaped, downward, rolling dive.

three-sixty
A 360-degree compass turn, which delays arrival over a target and puts an aircraft back on its original
heading.

top rudder
During knife-edge flight, the rudder position angling upwards.

torque roll
An aerobatic maneuver that consists of a vertical roll that continues in the same direction after the
aircraft has risen to a maximum height and started to fall backwards.

Aircraft flight controls are the means by which a pilot controls the direction and attitude of an aircraft in
flight.

Flight control systems are subdivided into what are referred to as primary and secondary flight controls.
Primary flight controls are required to safely control an aircraft during flight and consist
of ailerons, elevators (or, in some installations, stabilator) and rudder. Secondary flight controls are
intended to improve the aircraft performance characteristics or to relieve excessive control loading, and
consist of high lift devices such as slats and flaps as well as flight spoilers and trim systems.

Movement of any of the primary flight controls causes the aircraft to rotate around the axis of
rotation associated with the control surface. The ailerons control motion around the longitudinal axis
(roll), the elevator controls rotation around the lateral axis (pitch) and the rudder controls movement
around the vertical axis (yaw).

Buffet is a kind of vibration caused by aerodynamic excitation, usually associated with separated (or
turbulent) airflow. As the aircraft approaches stall, the airflow over the wing becomes turbulent and if it
flows across the horizontal stabilizer, buffeting may occur.
Whether low speed (stall) buffet happens or not depends on the aircraft characteristics; for example,
the stall starts from the root in case of straight wings and the stabilizer is affected by the turbulent
airflow before the outer wing stalls- this can be used by the pilot to take corrective action (as @Ron
Beyer points out in his comments). In case of swept wing aircraft, the stall progresses the other way
around- from tips to rot and it will be difficult for the pilot to use buffet in any real sense.

This buffeting can act as a warning for the pilot that the aircraft is approaching stall and he/she has to
take corrective action. In aircraft that do not show this behavior, some warning cues, like stick shaker
are sometimes incorporated in order to warn the pilot.

As density altitude increases, the angle of attack required to produce turbulence at the top of the wing
(stall angle) decreases till a point is reached that the high speed buffet (Mach buffet, due to supersonic
airflow) and the stall buffet (as already explained) converge. This point is called the coffin corner.

Flutter is a vibration in a part of the aircraft structure set‐up by turbulence in the slipstream
passing over the part, and has been the subject of a good deal of investigation from the early days
of flying up to the present time. Control surfaces appear to be particularly susceptible to flutter,

WHY

With aircraft calculation of the loads is an extremely important part of the design process. Many
hundreds of thousands of calculations need to be made in order to consider all of the possible cases that
might be encountered during an aircraft’s lifetime. Having determined the loads, engineers can then
compute the stresses all over the structure and then determine the size of the various structural
elements, e.g. spars, ribs and skin thicknesses.

Aircraft loads analysis is an important engineering discipline playing a major role from the first sketch of
a new aircraft until the decommissioning. A proper estimation of the loads in the design process is
reflected by the structure withstanding the loads and essentially by the structural weight that is about to
be minimized. The monitoring of the loads acting on the structure when the aircraft is in service is as
well significant. On the one hand the measured loads are compared to the predicted loads and on the
other hand the loads data can be used to estimate the real lifetime of an aircraft mainly driven by
fatigue.

Day one, in order to avoid potential pitfalls in your aircraft design and certification process. Loads are
needed at nearly all stages of a design program. Early in preliminary design, the structural designers
need initial loads to size preliminary structure. As the design iterations progress, the detail and fidelity of
the loads increases. The final step for an aircraft is a full set of certification loads for submission to the
FAA and EASA. The work of the loads group drives the stress and structural design groups; organizations
that are often much larger than the loads group. As a result of this, changes to loads inputs after a
substantial portion of detailed design is complete can necessitate a significant amount of rework. Let
TLG work with your organization through the early stages of the design process in order to minimize the
potential for expensive surprises in the design and certification of your project.
HOW

The overall guidance on loads is the CFR 14 Part 23 and 25 regulations. These require the aircraft to be
structurally sound for a specific set of flight conditions. The loads analysis needs to cover all possible
combinations of speed, altitude, flap angle, airplane gross weight, airplane center of gravity, passenger
and payload distribution, fuel quantities, engine thrust and airbrake positions for each of the required
maneuver and load cases for each part of the airplane. An example of a load condition is for the pilot to
suddenly roll the airplane while flying at 20,000 feet altitude, a speed of 300 knots, full engine thrust,
airbrakes retracted, flaps and slats retracted, five passengers sitting in the forward most seats, half full
wing fuel tanks and maximum allowed cargo. Adding up all of the possible combinations, there are
thousands of unique load cases.