Static Margin - Relationship To Aircraft and Missile Stability and Control

Relationship To Aircraft and Missile Stability and Control

• If the center of gravity (CG) of an aircraft is forward of the neutral point, or the CG of a missile is forward of the center of pressure, the vehicle will respond to a disturbance by producing an aerodynamic moment that returns the angle of attack of the vehicle towards the angle that existed prior to the disturbance.
• If the CG of an aircraft is behind the neutral point, or the CG of a missile is behind the center of pressure, the vehicle will respond to a disturbance by producing an aerodynamic moment that continues to drive the angle of attack of the vehicle further away from the starting position.

The first condition above is positive static stability. In missile analysis this is described as positive static margin. (In aircraft analysis it may be described as negative static margin.)
The second condition above is negative static stability. In missile analysis this is defined as negative static margin. (In aircraft analysis it may be described as positive static margin.)

Depending on the static margin, humans may not be able to use control inputs to the elevators to control the pitch of the vehicle. Typically, computer based autopilots are required to control the vehicle when it has negative static stability - usually described as negative static margin.

The purpose of the reduced stability (low static margin) is to make an aircraft more responsive to pilot inputs. An aircraft with a large static margin will be very stable and slow to respond to the pilot inputs. The amount of static margin is an important factor in determining the handling qualities of an aircraft. For an unguided rocket, the vehicle must have a large positive static margin so the rocket shows minimum tendency to diverge from the direction of flight given to it at launch. In contrast, guided missiles usually have a negative static margin for increased maneuverability.