ABSTRACT
However, an aircraft wing is a continuous system with distributed mass and elasticity; moreover, the aerodynamic loading is also distributed over the length of the wing. In a steady flow of speed, U, the wing has some mean elastic deformation, which is of no concern in this study. The free motion of the wing about the mean position following an initial disturbance is considered. The nature of the roots of a polynomial equation of this type can be studied by applying Routh’s stability criterion. The method is suitable to apply on characteristic equations of control systems or physical systems. The polynomial equation must contain only a finite number of terms. The coefficients of the characteristic equations are arranged in a specific formation and the method will provide information on the positive roots of the characteristic equation that would indicate that the system is unstable.
