Questions tagged [pitch]

Pitch is rotation about the lateral axis, which makes the nose point up or down.

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How does the US space shuttle control pitch when landing without a canard? [duplicate]

Looking at the design of the US space shuttle, I'm curious to understand how it's able to control pitch during landing? By just looking at the design, it appears that it would need some kind of canard ...
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If the pitch of a bypass fan blade in a turbofan is fixed how does it manage to provide thrust over such a large speed range?

A fixed pitch propeller is only good for aircraft that do around 100kts because the angle of attack on the propeller decreases as the forward airspeed of the aircraft increases, limiting the thrust ...
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Sudden "nose-down" event during a normal flight in normal weather conditions

I had a flight scheduled from WAW to KIV on LOT airlines. The boarding pass told they changed the aircraft to a 737 MAX. When I saw that I've immediately remembered that whole MCAS story from 2018. ...
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Where can a digital reading of the pitch/attitude of a plane be found?

Where can a digital reading of the pitch of plane be found? E.g on Microsoft flight simulator, on the attitude dial, the pitch of the plane (e.g 10 degrees up above horizon) has to be manually read ...
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How pitch is changed in harrier jet(vertical landing and take off aircraft)

How pitch is changed in harrier jet and lift is achieved?Is it same principle like conventional fighter jets like f16 etc? What about drones quadcopter etc do they also follow same principle?
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Do aircraft pitch down even at very low angles of attack (below 0°) in a strong sideslip?

I was doing an analysis of an aircraft (specifically the PZL Koliber 160 with the NACA 63A416) strong sideslip conditions (beta=30° for example) in OpenVSP at various angles of attack, and observed ...
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Adverse pitch on unstable aircraft's roll

In airplanes like the F-22, both the main wings and the tailerons provide (at least at subsonic speed) positive lift. My question is this: when performing a roll using all control surfaces ...
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What's the optimal zoom climb angle for a fighter jet to reach its highest possible altitude in a parabola?

If a supersonic fighter jet wanted to reach the highest possible apogee it could in a parabola, what's the optimal pitch angle to do so? A too high pitch may result in insufficient thrust and a sooner ...
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What do you call a fall that is due to too little engine power, not due to cessation of aerodynamic lift?

If you raise your plane's pitch but the engines can no longer counter the gravity and you begin to fall (because the engines are too weak, not because of too little lift), what do you call that? This ...
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What is propeller pitch speed?

I was using Ecalc to calculate some flight parameters and then I came across this term called "propeller pitch speed". Can anyone explain me what this means?
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When pitching, how do planes establish a pitch rate which corresponds to the centripetal acceleration?

Coordinated flight requires that the yaw rate and the centripetal acceleration correspond. In other words, for a given $a_{centripetal} = v^2/r = \omega ^2 r$ this means that the yaw rate must equal $\...
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Why did Concorde have a max pitch down attitude in supersonic flight?

In ITVV Concorde (documentary) as the flight's captain introduced the ADI (attitude director indicator) he explained the dotted line (circled above) as follows: [...] and the little orange dotted ...
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How much could you increase lift using ailerons alone?

If a plane had ailerons that could be moved in the same direction, could the lift be increased by a non-negligible amount?
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Is pitch-flap coupling an aerodynamic effect or an intrinsic property of a delta 3 offset?

I am modelling a propeller, in particularly the equations of motion of the various pitch/lag/flap angles as the propeller is turning around. The blade includes a $\delta_3$ angle, which provides pitch-...
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Steady-state simulation of pitching motion

Is it possible to perform a simulation of 'steady-state' pitching motion of an aircraft/wing? Is there any method where we can analyse the effects through a steady-state simulation of a pitching ...
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How does pitch relate to glide angle?

When flying a glider, you have a polar curve. As your speed increases beyond best glide, your glide angle gets steeper. Say you are flying at best glide, you are looking through a specific point in ...
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Calculate pitch balance of RC glider?

Today, I played with styrofoam gliders with my kids; I made an asymmetric wing, asymmetric horizontal tail, symmetric vertical tail, and attached these to one stick for the fuselage. I've had big ...
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1 answer
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Is it possible to define a "good landing" in terms of pitch angle and vertical speed?

Is there a specific combination of pitch angle and vertical speed at touchdown that would be usually be considered a "good landing" in a B737NG?
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How do fighter jets stop pitching motion after a elevator deflection?

I'm working on a flight simulator , In which the jet has only ailerons , rudder , and two elvators at the back . When I nose up my aircraft via elevator deflection , it just keeps pitching up ( even ...
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How is the B737NG Autopilot controlling pitch?

In particular, does the Autopilot in a B737NG control the pitch only via trim adjustment, or first via the elevators and then trim?
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3 answers
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Power changes and trim forces. related to position of Center of Mass (CoG), or Center of Pressure?

Theoretically (and Actually) do power increases cause a pitching tendency (and a need to adjust pitch trim), because the thrust line is not aligned with the Center of pressure, or, as I understand it, ...
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What pitch attitudes are common during an emergency descent for an airliner?

What pitch attitudes are common during an emergency descent? I assume it would be a fairly nose-down attitude, but I can't imagine how steep would feel to the passengers. Suppose a gradual ...
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Comparison of pitching moment at different locations

I've conducted some numerical simulations of a pitching airfoil at three different locations of the pitching axis along the airfoil. The locations (from the leading edge of the airfoil) are: $0.25c$, $...
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How attitude, speed, and altitude vary when increasing pitch?

I have been struggling with the following question for a while, would greatly appreciate some help and explanation why. Scenario: I'm cruising in my Cessna- cruise attitude 2300 RPM trimmed for 95. ...
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Why does pitching moment coefficient decrease with an increase in the angle of attack?

Slope of Cm vs alpha graph is negative, why it is so? The attached graph is from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitching_moment , this graph is for cambered airfoil, as pitching moment is zero for ...
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What exactly is "plunge?"

I'm doing a project in which i'm attempting to model the motion of a wing using a system of second order differential equations. This is a 2-degree-of-freedom model based on the quantities pitch, a(t),...
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Helicopter Flight: What is the reason for decrease in Induced drag with increase in speed?

As per the figure the induced drag will decrease only if the AoA of the blade is decreased — But in the forward flight, cyclic input increases and decreases the AoA throughout the blade rotation cycle....
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In helicopter's forward motion, how is the forward pitching moment taken care off?

When the rotor disk is in the position shown by the dashed lines, the net Lift is at an angle. It should produce a forward pitching moment about CG (Center of gravity). That can cause the helicopter ...
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How can I calculate the relationship between propeller pitch and thrust?

I am trying to design a WWI propeller so I started calculating. The propeller comes with a specified pitch of 1.75m. The engine is supposed to run at around 1900 rpm and 147kW. These are most likely ...
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How much torque can a Boeing 747 apply when pitching?

I know this is a weird way of thinking about / quantifying this, but I'm trying to figure out how much torque a 747 can apply to itself when it pitches upwards (turning about an axis from wing to wing,...
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What is the average pitch of a plane?

I'm looking for the average pitch of big planes like an Airbus A300. For horizontal travel, is the plane horizontal or does it have a pitch like 1 or 2° (or more)? If the plane does not accelerate ...
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What is the relation between velocity and rate of pitch?

I saw the answer to airspeed and rate of turn but this I think isn't what I want. I've seen it many times that aircraft will pitch up much slower when at higher speeds particularly fighter aircraft. ...
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How does a delta wing deal with supersonic boundary separation?

The question Why most of the supersonic or fighter aircraft use all-moving control surfaces? emphasis the importance of all moving stabilator for supersonic aircraft. Many supersonic aircrafts ...
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What 's the difference between Angle of Attack and Pitch? [duplicate]

I am interested in knowing the theoretical and practical differences between the Angle of Attack (AoA) and Pitch: Graphical definitions How are they related? In what circumstances these angles are ...
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1 answer
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Why does the use of reverse thrust on the DC-8 generate a pitch-up moment rather than a pitch-down moment?

Unlike most aircraft, the DC-8 is certified to use reverse thrust in flight (albeit only on its inboard engines). This serves as a very effective airbrake, although it also produces considerable ...
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Why does the Eurofighter Typhoon pitch up on brake release?

In the video here of an airshow take-off, it's noticeable that when the brakes are released there's a brief but pronounced fluctuation in pitch as the aircraft accelerates. This is something you see ...
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How does the load factor vary when the aircraft pitches up/down?

I know that when an aircraft starts rolling, it's load factor increases. But can anybody explain how does load factor vary when the aircraft pitches up/down? Does it increase/decrease?
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What is difference between pitch & lift? [closed]

What is the difference between pitch and lift of an aircraft?Please kindly try to include graphics with your answers
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Partial panel power on stall under the hood

What do you use for control and performance instruments while demonstrating power on stall under the hood with attitude and heading indicator covered (No vacuum instruments in 6 packs ) ?
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Why does spoiler extension cause straight-wing Learjets to pitch down, rather than up, and why did it take so long to discover this?

Straight-wing Learjets (the 23, 24, 25, 35, and 36), the first generation of the popular business-jet series, are (especially when not equipped with any of the many first- and third-party wing ...
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Do the speed brakes on an F-16 change its pitch?

In level flight at 400 knots, what happens when the speed brakes are extended?
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Why there so many pitch control surfaces on the Piaggio P180 Avanti?

Picture source. I have seen that there is kind of sonic aircraft like B-1B Lancer that used elevator and canard or fins at the same time for pitch control. That quite understandable because it is ...
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Why does RPM for a fixed-pitch propeller change with an aircraft's pitch?

Talking bout a C-152 - If I pitch the aircraft down, and without adjusting the throttle, the RPM would show an increase. Pitch up, and without adjusting the throttle, the RPM shows a decrease. I've ...
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6 answers
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What are the exact meanings of roll, pitch and yaw?

I lack some 3 dimensional understanding. What are these angles referenced to? For example, R, P, Y all start from 0, plane is flying horizontal, then it inclines its nose by 90 degrees, moving ...
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Why is the rotor system of an aircraft and the rotor system of a helicopter different? [closed]

Both aircraft with propeller(variable pitch) and helicopter rotor system can change pitch. Of course, for helicopter, there is not only collective pitch control but also cyclic control. The aircraft ...
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What happens if full collective pitch is suddenly commanded on most modern helicopters?

Related, but not the same: What happens when you apply full cyclic + collective? If the pilot suddenly applies full collective pitch on a turbine powered helicopter, will the engine stall? It seems ...
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Why don’t airliners use stabilizer movement to assist with large pitch control inputs?

Most large airliners not only have elevators for pitch control, but also moveable horizontal stabilizers. The elevators are used for primary pitch control, with the stabilizers being used to trim the ...
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How does having a bigger engine placed slightly more forward and higher impact the plane in pitch?

I'm asking about general aerodynamics for under-wing twin-jets – I'm not after information/speculation on the Max 8 crashes/systems, but I mention the crash below because of what I see as an unclear (...
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1 answer
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Why does the DHC-6 pitch down when the flaps are retracted, rather than up?

Air Moorea Flight 1121 crashed because one of its elevator cables broke immediately after the pilot retracted the flaps, but before he could trim out the resulting pitch-down moment - to quote the ...
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Why does an aircraft's nose tend to pitch downward at higher bank angles?

In the usual aircraft configuration, the center of lift is located behind the CG producing negative pitch moment (the horizontal stabilizer counteracts it by producing downforce - positive pitching ...
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