My goal is to estimate the lift coefficient of a glider aircraft based on three properties:
- Climbrate [m/s]
- Turnrate [turns/minute]
- Speed [m/s]
For this I'm using the lift equation:
L=Cl*0.5*r*V^2*A
Currently these properties are unknown:
- L
- Cl
- A
For r
(density) we'll take the default of 1.23 kg/m^3.
I'm toying with the idea to use the climbrate as a surrogate for the lift, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the relationship between the lift force (Newtons), and the climbrate (m/s).
A derivative of the climbrate could be the kinetic energy per mass unit (Ke/m==0.5V^2
), but this does not bring me any further.
A possibility I've been exploring is to equalize the lift as the following equation by abstracting all unknowns into the units of lift.
climbrate+G == F*s/A*kg == Cl*0.5*r*V^2
I'm not sure though whether I'm justified to do so by laws of nature and mathematics.
Once this relationship is clear it's almost a trivial task to solve for the lift coefficient.