MISSILE AND SPACECRAFT CONING INSTABILITIES

The destabilizing effect of yaw or Magnus-type moments on the angle-of-attack behavior of spinning missiles is well known to the missile designer. Yaw moments can also have a destabilizing (or stabilizing) effect on the attitude or coning motion of spinning spacecraft. The analogy might not be readily apparent because of the difference between the angle of attack of a spinning missile in atmospheric flight and the coning angle of spin-stabilized spacecraft. A concise treatment of the dynamics associated with coning instabilities is presented, and illustrative examples of classical missile and spacecraft coning instabilities are reviewed.