2011-2012 FALL SEMESTER

AE 451
AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN I

Reading assignments:

•Chapters 1-2 of Raymer D.P., "Aircraft Design: A

Conceptual Approach", 4th Edition AIAA Education
Series, 2006
Civil Aircraft Development Process (McMasters)
 Design Requirements

 Mission Requirements
Purpose
Crew size and payload weight
Performance: speed/range/duration/etc.

 Cost Requirements
Life Cycle Cost (LCC)

 Maintenance and Support Requirements

Maintenance man-hours per flight hour (MMH/FH)
Ground support equipment and personnel

 Scheduling Requirements
When will the product be ready for deployment?
 Regulations, Specifications, and Standards
 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
http://www.airweb.faa.gov

 Sample CFRs:

Part 23 - AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND

COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES
Part 25 - AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY AIRPLANES
Part 27 - AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT
Part 49 - RECORDING OF AIRCRAFT TITLES AND SECURITY DOCUMENTS
Part 101 - MOORED BALLOONS, KITES, UNMANNED ROCKETS AND
UNMANNED FREE BALLOONS

 Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA Specifications

http://www.everyspec.com/
Sizing from a Conceptual
Sketch
 Sizing is the most important calculation in aircraft
design.

 Sizing determines the size of the aircraft, specifically

the weight that the aircraft must possess to perform its
intended mission carrying its intended payload.

 There are many levels of aircraft sizing procedure. The

simplest level just adopts past history. For example, if
you want to replace F-15 aircraft fighter, use 44500 lb,
which is the design weight of F-15 aircraft (a good
number to start initial calculations)
 Takeoff Weight Estimation
“Design takeoff gross weight (W0)” is the total weight of the
aircraft as it begins the mission for which it was designed.

This is not necessarily the same as the maximum takeoff weight

of the aircraft. Many military aircraft can be overloaded beyond
design weight but will suffer a reduced maneuverability.

Design takeoff gross weight can be broken into crew weight,

payload (or passenger) weight, fuel weight and the remaining
(empty) weight. The empty weight includes the structure,
engines, landing gear, fixed equipment, avionics and anything
else not considered a part of crew, payload and fuel.
The weight estimation is carried out by calculating the weight of the
fuel required for the mission (Wf) and using the formulae for empty
weight (We) based on analysis of similar airplanes. The stages
involved are given below.

Wcrew & Wpayload are known as they are given in the design
specifications.

Wf & We depend on gross weight (W0).

 Empty-Weight estimation:
Figure 3.1 in Raymer gives the trends of We/W0 for different
types of airplanes. Note the log scale on abscissa.

These curves can be approximated by an equation of the type:

where W0 = Take- off gross weight in pounds or kg

A and c depend on the type of airplanes (Table 3.1).

Empty weight fractions vary from about 0.3 to 0.7, and

decreases with increasing total aircraft weight.
Empty-Weight estimation:
Empty-Weight estimation:
Remarks:
i) A variable sweep airplane is heavier . Hence multiply the value
of We/ W0 by 1.04 in this case.

ii) Use of composites: A reduction in weight by 20% can be

expected when composites are used in place of aluminum in a
particular component . However there are other components
with metallic materials. Hence , an overall reduction of 5% is
reasonable and multiply the values of We/W0 given in the above
table by 0.95
 Fuel Fraction estimation:

Fuel weight consists of the following:

I. Fuel required for mission .
II. Fuel required as reserve.
III. Trapped fuel which cannot be pumped out.

Mission fuel depends on the following factors.

a) Mission to be flown.
b) Aerodynamics of the airplane - (L/D) ratio.
c) SFC of the engine.
 Typical Mission Profiles
Simple mission: It consists of
take off, climb, cruise, descent,
loiter and landing.
Mission profile example:

Anti-submarine warfare(ASW) airplane :

chapter 3 considers the mission of such an airplane to
consist of warm up, take off, climb, cruise, reconnaissance
(certain number of turns, or certain minutes of maximum
power), weapons drop, cruise back, descent, loiter and
landing
Weight fractions for various segments of mission:

The fuel required in a particular phase of the mission

depends on the weight of the airplane at the start of
that phase and the distance covered or the duration of
time for the phase. Let the mission consists of ‘n’
phases. The weight fraction for the phase ‘i’ is denoted
as Wi / Wi-1. Let W0 be the weight at the start of the
flight (warm up) and Wn be the weight at the end of
last phase (say landing) then,

Total
weight
fraction
 3
2

5
0 1
 3
2

5
0 1
To analyze the fuel required in various segments, the mission
profile consists of the following typical phases.

• Warm up and take off

• Climb
• Cruise
• Loiter
• Cruise back
• Loiter
• Land 3
2

5
0 1
The warm up and take off, climb and landing weight fractions can
be estimated historically. Table 3.2 gives typical historical values for
initial sizing.

Values can vary somewhat depending on aircraft type, but the

averages value given in the table are reasonable for initial sizing.

In the current sizing method, descent is ignored, assuming that the

cruise ends with a descent and that the distance traveled during
descent is part of the cruise range.
 Cruise segment weight fraction
The distance (dR) covered when a quantity of fuel (dWf) is consumed in time
dt is given as:

A/C weight drops as the fuel is burned

Where ‘C’ is the specific fuel consumption, ‘T’ is the thrust, ‘V’
is the flight velocity and ( L/D ) is the lift to drag ratio.
Integrating,
 Loiter segment weight fraction
The endurance (dE) [the amount of time an aircraft remain in
the air] when a quantity of fuel (dWf) is consumed in time dt is
given as:

Integrating:
Specific fuel consumption (C) :

For jet engines “SFC” or simply “C” is the rate of fuel

consumption divided by the resulting thrust.
C= (fuel consumed per hour in N)/(thrust in N) or 1/hr.
or [(lb/hr)/ lb or 1/hr]

Some times fuel consumption is measured in milligrams

per second and the thrust is still measured in Newton's .
In this case the units of ‘C’ would be
(mg/ Ns).
Specific fuel consumption (C) :
SFC vs Mach number (M) for various engines.
Specific fuel consumption (C) :

In the case of airplane with propeller, we define ‘C’ in the

following manner.
We know that the propeller efficiency (ηp) is given by:

where P is in Watts

where BHP (brake horse power) in HP and T &

V are in ft/sec
 Recalling that,

we get:

Where Cpower is mg/s/Watt of power and Cbhp is lbs / hr/ BHP .

 [1/hr]

[lb/hr/ bhp]

Remark: To get Cbhp in N/hr/kW multiply by 5.972 to the value in lb/hr/ bhp
Estimation of (L/D)max:
The drag polar of an airplane can be approximated as:
CD= CD0 + KCL2
zero lift drag induced drag
parasite drag drag caused by the generation of lift
drag due to skin friction

Then it can be shows that (L/D)max = 1/{2(CD0K)1/2}

Thus (L/D)max depends on CD0 and K . Further CD0 depends

primarily on the wetted area of the airplane (Swet) and K
depends primarily on the aspect ratio of the wing (A=b2/S).

b: span of the wing

S: wing reference area
Estimation of (L/D)max:

A parameter called wetted aspect ratio (Awet) defined as:

Awet = A/(Swet/S)

where S is wing area.

When (L/D)max is plotted vs Awet it is found that the values, for

various airplanes of a category, fall on a single curve . The
guidelines for choice of Swet/S, are given in figure.
Maximum lift to drag ratio

Awet=
Wetted area ratios
Thus for a preliminary estimate of (L/D)max the steps
are as follows:

1. Choose wing aspect ratio from data collection

(competitor study).

2. Choose Swet/S from figure of “wetted area ratios” and

calculate Awet from Equation Awet = A/(Swet/S)

3. Corresponding to this Awet and for the chosen type

of airplane , choose (L/D)max from the figure of “Maximum
lift to drag ratio”
The values of (L/D) which maximize range and
endurance are indicated in Table below:
 Fuel Fraction Estimation:

After calculating the weight fractions in various phases of the

mission, the weight of the airplane at the end of the mission
is given by:

Total
weight
fraction

Consequently the mission fuel fraction is:

(1-(Wn/W0))
Remark:
Generally an allowance of 6 % is provided for reserve and trapped
fuel. Thus ,
Total fuel
fraction
Take-off weight calculation:
Having obtained (Wf/W0) and (We/W0) the take-off
weight can be calculated. However the expression for
(We/W0) involves W0 and an iterative procedure is
Needed (guess an initial value for W0 and iterate)
 Exercise:

Class work

An airplane under design has the following features:

Weight of payload + crew = 26000 N

Estimated fuel fraction (Wf / W0 ) = 0.387
Empty weight fraction ( We / W0)= 0.837 W0 -0.7;
where W0 is in Newton.

Obtain the gross weight (W0) of the airplane

Mission profile
 Extra lift dueto exhaustover the
Lightest structure but
wings but difficult maintenance
Engine exhaust stream

Canarded approach. Reduced trim The wing is high with the

drag, wider allowable range for center engine mounted below. Easy
of gravity. maintenance for engines