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Air Force Institute of Technology

Theses and Dissertations

Inertia (Mechanics)

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Inertia Measurement And Dynamic Stability Analysis Of A Radio-Controlled Joined-Wing Aircraft, William A. Mcclelland Mar 2006

Inertia Measurement And Dynamic Stability Analysis Of A Radio-Controlled Joined-Wing Aircraft, William A. Mcclelland

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic stability and stall during steady level turns were examined for VA-1, a joined-wing flight demonstrator aircraft. Configurations with a lower vertical tail and fairings over the main landing gear were compared with a recommendation on the combination had the best drag and dynamic stability characteristics. The dynamic stability analysis was broken into four key parts: a twist test experimentally measured mass moments of inertia, a panel method was used to find non-dimensional stability derivatives, lateral and longitudinal state space models estimated dynamic stability characteristics and handling quality levels were evaluated using a Cooper-Harper based rating system. VA-1 was found …


A Tightly-Coupled Ins/Gps Integration Using A Mems Imu, Jonathan M. Neu Sep 2004

A Tightly-Coupled Ins/Gps Integration Using A Mems Imu, Jonathan M. Neu

Theses and Dissertations

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology holds great promise for future navigation systems because of the reduced size and cost of MEMS inertial sensors relative to conventional devices. Current MEMS devices are much less accurate than standard inertial sensors, but they can still be useful. In this thesis, data was recorded from an inexpensive MEMS inertial measurement unit and integrated with GPS measurements using a tightly-coupled Kalman filter. The overall goal of this research is to investigate the usefulness of MEMS sensors for a small, real-time, low-cost INS/GPS integration. A golf cart was used to collect dynamic data, along with a commercial …