Research on control principles and stability characteristics of W-shaped tailless aircraft

The W-shaped tailless aircraft has not stabilizer and vertical tail, and it is based on the design of forward-swept wing and the integrated design of blended wing-fuselage. Because of the change of configuration, the radar cross section of this aircraft decreases greatly, and the structural weight lightens. This aircraft also has advantages of high aerodynamic efficiency in subsonic velocity, and high control efficiency of lateral-directional control surfaces. According to the characteristics of this configuration, firstly, the innovative control-surfaces are designed which fit this special configuration, and the control principles are also researched. Then, the special longitudinal and lateral-directional stability characteristics of this aircraft are computed and analyzed. This aircraft's longitudinal damping is unsatisfactory, and its long period and short period mode's flying quality just satisfies second and third class respectively. It has lateral-directional static instability, and also dynamic instability. But this aircraft's dutch roll mode is stable, and the possible physical reason is analyzed. Finally, the influences on the lateral-directional stability boundary caused by the lateral-directional static stability derivations which are different from the conventional aircraft's are researched in detail. The research methods and results have important reference meaning in the new configuration aircraft's preliminary design.