Background Information and User Guide for Mil-F-8785B (ASG), 'Military Specification-Flying Qualities of Piloted Airplanes'

The document is published in support of Military Specification MIL-F-8785B, 'Flying Qualities of Piloted Airplanes.' It was compiled after an extensive literature review and many meetings and discussions with personnel from essentially all concerned civilian and governmental organizations. The primary purpose is to explain the concept and philosophy underlying MIL-F-8785B and to present some of the data and arguments upon which the requirements were based. A secondary purpose is to present what are believed to be the important governing variables in the field of flying qualities and to define their significance and relationship to each other. The significance of such mission- oriented factors as airplane class, flight phase, flight condition, loading and configuration is discussed, as is the treatment of failure states. The document should also, to a degree, serve as a summary of the state of the flying qualities art as determined from operational experience, flight test, experiment, analysis and theory.