Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Aircraft stability

Asked by: 1624 views , ,
Aerodynamics

Is it possible for an aircraft to be disturbed, be it by wind gust or thermals, and exhibit negative static stability then subsequently display positive dynamic stability? 

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. pilotmike33 on May 11, 2020

    Short answer: NO… absolutely not. I’m not going to have a long winded answer because you can read it for yourself in the classic text: Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators: Chapter 4, starting on Page 243. Get it free here from the FAA:

    https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/00-80T-80.pdf

    You can’t have one without the other. Think of the bowl analogy. On page 247, it states “the existence of dynamic stability [necessarily] implies the existence of static stability.”

    Now the only way what you asked would even be remotely true is in turbulence. But that’s not really applicable to the aircraft. It’s a temporary flight condition that may induce negative static stability (if let’s say it upsets your plane and prevents it from returning to level flight) and well, eventually you fly out of the turbulence thereby the oscillations would gradually cease and now violá you’re level and positively dynamically stable. But again, this is a flight condition, not a design concept. The reason I say this is because I think this is what you meant- but it’s not correct.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.