
Ch02-H6927.tex 10/7/2007 14: 22 Page 18
18 Flight Dynamics Principles
q
f
y
y
q
f
o
0
x
1
x
2
, x
3
y
0
y
1
, y
2
y
3
z
3
z
2
z
0
, z
1
Figure 2.5 The Euler angles.
to wind axes and for some data to be referred to body axes. It therefore becomes
necessary to have available the mathematical tools for transforming data between
different reference axes.
2.3 EULER ANGLES AND AIRCRAFT ATTITUDE
The angles defined by the right handed rotation about the three axes of a right handed
system of axes are called Euler angles. The sense of the rotations and the order in
which the rotations are considered about the three axes in turn are very important
since angles do not obey the commutative