A novel approach to dimensionless flight mechanics in a central gravity field
- Paper ID
IAF-64-05
- author
- company
North American Aviation, Inc.
- country
U.S.A.
- year
1964
- abstract
This paper presents a method for the determination of flight performance and trajectory elements, which, compared with conventional methods, provides a number of practical advantages relative to the simplicity and universality of its application. By introducing the ratio of the kinetic energy of an orbiting body to the local circular kinetic energy, the expressions for energy and orbital speed become linearly related to the radial distance. Therefore, the description of orbital motion is reduced to a simple problem of geometry. Impulsive orbital transfers are graphically represented by horizontal distances between iso-energy and iso-speed lines. Also, non-tangential transfers are conveniently represented. By consistently separating quantitative from quahtative terms the determination method is dimensionless and is applicable to any celestial body.