AN ANALYSIS OF THE POWER-OFF LANDING MANEUVER IN TERMS OF THE CAPABILITIES OF THE PILOT AND THE AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AIRPLANE

摘要

An analysis of the power-off landing maneuver is presented in which an attempt is made to consider the human capabilities of the pilot in addition to the aerodynamic characteristics of the airplane. Assumptions are made that the pilot's judgment of distance may be inaccurate by a certain factor Eh and that a time delay tr occurs between a decision to correct the airplane attitude and the time that such correction is affected. These parameters Eh and tr are included in the landing calculations to modify the optimum landing paths derived from purely aerodynamic considerations so as to give them inherent safety margins. The corresponding determination of a minimum safe initial glide speed and the definition of a region within which the pilot should fly in order to make a safe landing in a minimum distance are described. Several cal¬culated results based on assumed values of Eh and tr are presented. The results obtained from the present analysis show the desirability of future research to determine accurate values of Eh and tr.