Agility: History, Definitions and Basic Concepts

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to provide some engineering basis of the concept of agility. We'll see that the definition of agility has evolved across recent aviation history, from the well known area of airframe agility to a global concept of operational agility. We'll give some consensus definition, some of which have been proposed by the working group 19 of the Flight Mechanics Panel of AGARD. We'll briefly examine the concepts of agility relative to each component of the system (airframe, systems, weapons) and give some orders of magnitude of present and future weapon systems performances, which may have particular consequences on the human in flight. We'll then examine the concept of operational agility and conclude with some perspectives for potential areas of preoccupation relative to the role of human pilots in the future combat scenarios and information environment.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADP010448

Entities

People

  • Patrick Le Blaye

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerodynamic Control Surfaces
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Control Surfaces
  • Control Systems
  • Detectors
  • Flight Control Systems
  • Flight Paths
  • Guidance
  • High Angles
  • Mach Number
  • Navigation
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Psychology
  • Situational Awareness
  • Training
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Theoretical Analysis.