Roll Response of Large Airplanes

Experience with C-5A roll response shows possible shortcomings of current re­quirements when applied to really large airplanes. William D. Grantham (1983) reports:

[Considerable effort and expense were initially expended on the C-5A in an attempt to meet a requirement for rolling to an 8 degree bank angle in one second. It was later determined from flight tests that the handling qualities of the C-5A were totally acceptable with less than one-half such roll capability.

This implies that careful research is needed to establish time-to-bank requirements for superjumbo jets, to avoid overdesign.