Aerodynamic Derivatives of a Boeing 747

In my Flight Dynamics and Controls II course, I was tasked with the assignment to find the values of the longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic derivatives of a Boeing 747. The problems statement reads, “Calculate the longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic derivatives of the Boeing 747 aircraft. The flight condition is cruising in horizontal flight at approximately 40,000 ft at Mach number 0.9.”

Using data from Robert C. Nelson’s Flight Stability and Automatic Control: Second Edition, I was able to find these values. To do this, I coded the formulas and given values into a MATLAB program. These derivatives give helpful insight into the aerodynamic forces and moments that act on aircraft during flight.

Here is the MATLAB program I wrote for the assignment.

Here is the resultant text file.