Flight Dynamics and System Identification for Modern Feedback Control

Appendix C: Equations of motion for single-body flight vehicles

Abstract: Many flight vehicles, including conventional fixed-wing aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft, and spacecraft, can often be modeled as a single body. Derivation of the equations of motion is most commonly performed using the Newton-Euler approach [1, 37]; however, to provide familiarity with the energy approach presented in Chapter 3, the equations of motion for a single-body vehicle are derived here using the Boltzmann-Hamel equations.

Key Words: rigid body dynamics, Boltzmann-Hamel equations, conventional aircraft

Consider the single-body vehicle in Figure 2.1, having position and velocity state variables

(6.7)

Written in terms of these state variables, the kinetic energy ...