Flight Dynamics

Course Description

Flight Dynamics is the study of how an aircraft actually behaves in flight: what it can do, whether it is stable, and how the controls change its motion. The statewide description covers aircraft performance, aerodynamic design data, and elements of stability and control.

Carried by four Florida public institutions at 3 credits — FAU, FIU, Florida Polytechnic and UCF.

⚠⚠ The statewide title says “Aerodynamics II”, and it is misleading. Every carrier names this course flight dynamics or flight mechanics, and the state’s own description backs them. See Special Information — it matters if you are choosing courses from the state record.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Compute aircraft performance: climb, range, endurance, turn and takeoff.
• Construct and use the drag polar and performance diagrams.
• Derive the equations of motion for a rigid aircraft.
• Analyse static stability — longitudinal, lateral and directional — and locate the neutral point.
• Analyse dynamic stability and identify the classical modes: phugoid, short period, Dutch roll, spiral.
• Relate control surface deflection to aircraft response.

Optional Outcomes

• Introduction to feedback control and stability augmentation.
• Flight simulation exercises.
• Handling qualities and certification criteria.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The atmosphere and airspeed measurement.
• Aircraft performance in steady flight.
• The drag polar; range and endurance.
• Equations of motion and reference frames.
• Static longitudinal, lateral and directional stability.
• Dynamic stability and the classical modes.
• Control surfaces and trim.

Optional Topics

• Stability augmentation and autopilot basics.
• Flight testing and data reduction.
• Handling qualities specifications.

Resources & Tools

• Anderson, Aircraft Performance and Design; Nelson, Flight Stability and Automatic Control; Etkin & Reid are the common texts.
• MATLAB for the dynamics and simulation work.

Career Pathways

Named on the Aerospace Engineer career path. It leads into flight sciences, controls, flight test and vehicle design, and is the natural preparation for guidance, navigation and control work — an area with a strong presence in Florida’s defence and simulation sector.

Special Information

⚠⚠ The statewide title is stale, and the carriers show it

The SCNS title for this number is Aerodynamics II. No carrier uses that name:

The state’s own description — performance, design data, stability and control — matches the carriers rather than the title. So the title is the stale element, and a student choosing courses from the state record should not expect a second aerodynamics course. The aerodynamics sequence continues elsewhere: compressible flow is numbered EAS4134 at UCF and USF.

⚠⚠ Export control shapes who can take this into a job

Much aerospace work is subject to ITAR and EAR export control, which in practice restricts many roles — and some laboratory and project work — to U.S. persons, and a great deal of defence work additionally requires a security clearance that takes months to obtain. This is not a course requirement, but it is a career requirement, and it is better understood in the second year than after an offer.

Licensure, and why it matters less here

A Professional Engineer licence is uncommon in aerospace — most of the work falls under the industrial exemption, and employers hire on degree, project record and clearance. ⚠ It is still worth sitting the FE examination in your final year: it is inexpensive then and expensive to recreate later, and it keeps open a move into consulting or civil-adjacent work. Under s. 471.013(1)(a), Florida Statutes, an approved engineering curriculum needs four years of experience toward the PE and an approved engineering technology curriculum six.