Relationships Between Agility Metrics and Flying Qualities

Government and industry agility researchers have proposed various agility measures of merit, called metrics, to define and measure aircraft agility. The proposed agility metrics are intended to offer designers new insight into aircraft maneuverability and controllability. This paper discusses the relationships between these new agility metrics and traditional flying qualities parameters for the lateral and longitudinal axes. In general, traditional flying qualities parameters are found to be a significant part of describing an aircraft's agility. Flying qualities considerations also help to explain trends in agility metrics that are otherwise unexplainable.