User:Dmchristhilf/Sandbox

With regard to the article on Stability Derivitives found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability_derivatives

The nomenclature for this article is somewhat non-standard, at least in terms of the United States. The British standard is somewhat different from the U.S., but I think this article doesn't conform to a British standard either.

Generally:

psi: vehicle orientation, deg. clockwise from North.

beta: sideslip angle, wind coming from starboard side.

For the 2-dim case given in the article ...

heading (direction of flight) = psi + beta

Calling beta as 'angle-of-attack' lends itself to confusion. For the 2-dim hrizontal case in the article, 'angle-of-sideslip' would be more appropriate, even for a missile vs. an airplane.

Dmchristhilf 18:27, 22 October 2007 (UTC) dmchristhilf