Kevin Patrick O'Brien
Aerospace engineering
Hometown: Avondale, Arizona, United States
Graduation date: Spring 2020
FURI | Fall 2020
How Center of Gravity Location and the Sizing of Control Surfaces Affect Aircraft Stability
The motivation behind this project is to investigate how to size an aircraft’s control surface in relation to the center of gravity for aircraft stability. Finding a working balance between these will then lead to finding the best design for a given mission. Multiple aircraft configurations were created in an aerodynamic data program called Vorlax with varying CG locations and control surfaces. The data is then visualized and analyzed in Excel to calculate the different equations related to stability. An important consideration to focus on while designing is being able to create a configuration that not only allows for center of gravity to have some range but also frequencies match what a pilot would be comfortable with.
Mentor: Timothy Takahashi
It’s hip to be square.
Students presenting projects at the Fulton Forge Student Research Expo are encouraged to download this personal QR code and include it within your poster. This allows expo attendees to explore more about your project and about you in the future.
Right click the image to save it to your computer.