What Is a Dutch Roll in a Plane?

Those who have an interest in aviation, regular flyers, or curious people tend to bump into the idea of “Dutch roll” quite often when mentioning stability in flight or weird flight phenomena. Dutch roll concept is not only a weird expression – it is a key element of aircraft safety and construction. We are going to answer the question in this article: What is a Dutch roll in a plane? We’re also going to look at how it impacts flight stability, how it is linked to the Southwest airline’s flight Dutch roll incidence, and why learning Dutch roll airplanes dynamics is important in aviation.

What Is a Dutch Roll?

A Dutch roll is a certain kind of the oscillatory movement occurring in the fixed-wing aircrafts. It is a combination of yawing (side-to-side movement in the nose of the aircraft) and rolling (as tilting of the wings) motions. This precarious back and forth takes its name after the ice-skating move that closely resembles it – side to side wobbles with pretty turns.

Basically, a Dutch roll is the aircraft’s movement to left and right sides as unintended movement, resulting when the aircraft experiences turbulences or when aileron and rudder are improperly coordinated.