The orientation of a rigid body is described by a position-tensor, composed of three unit vector axes fixed in the body; rotation is effected by tensor transformations in which a rotational operator is a Cartesian matrix, formed from the co-ordinates of the pivot axis and components of the angle of rotation; rotational sequences are represented by matrix products. Three practical applications are discussed: sequences of aircraft manoeuvres, which include composite rotations of roll and pitch, or roll, pitch and yaw, applied simultaneously; the variation of sweep, incidence and dihedral of a wing moving on any axis fixed in the aircraft; the direction of the pivot axis and the angle of rotation in the motion of a retractable undercarriage between two specified positions.
Tensor Analysis of Finite Rotations
Applications to Aircraft Manoeuvres, Variable Sweep Wings, Retractable Undercarriages
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology ; 30 , 5 ; 126-130
1958-05-01
5 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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