timeseries.SpaceCurve.lift_and_mass

SpaceCurve.lift_and_mass()

Produce the terms of the force-balance equations, to help derive coefficient-of-lift and mass from pure trajectory information.

Consider an aircraft flying with velocity \(v\), banking angle \(\theta\), air density \(\rho\), mass \(m\), gravity \(g\), vertical acceleration \(\ddot{z}\), and lift coefficient \(C_{\text{lift}}\).

The force-balance equation is ..math:

LHS = \frac12 \|v\|^2 \, \cos(\theta)\, \rho
RHS = (g + \ddot{z})
LHS\, C_{\text{lift}} = RHS\, m

Returns:

coefficients : :class:np.array

the columns are LHS and RHS.