rc plane design guide

Group 7
AIRCRAFT DESIGN FINAL DESIGN
REVIEW
March 20, 2013
Sagun Bajracharya
Roger Francis
Tim Tianhang Teng
Guang Wei Yu

Abstract
This document summarizes the work that group 7 has done insofar regarding the design
of a radio-controlled plane with respect to the requirements that were put forward by the
course (AER406, 2013). This report follows the same format as the presentation where we
inform the reader where the current design is, how the group progressed towards that design
and how we started. This report also summarizes a number of the important parameters
required for a conceptual design like the cargo type & amount,Wing aspect ratio, Optimum
Airfoil lift(CL), Thrust to weight ratio & Takeoﬀ distance. In addition, this report presents
the plane’s wing and tail design, stability analysis and a mass breakdown. The report ﬁnally
ends with pictures of the current design.
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Contents
1 Design Overview 6
2 Required Parameters 6
3 Trade Studies 6
3.1 Wing Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Wing Conﬁguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3 Fuselage Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.4 Tail Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.5 Overall Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.6 Parameters from Reference Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 Flight Score Optimization 11
4.1 Cargo Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Propeller Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3 Flight Parameter Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 Wing Design 16
5.1 Wing Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.2 Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.3 Taper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4 Wing Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.5 Airfoil Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.6 Wing Design Speciﬁcation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.7 Wing Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6 Empennage Design 22
6.1 Horizontal Stabilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.2 Vertical Stabilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.3 Theoretical Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7 Stability 24
7.1 Static Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.2 Dynamic Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
8 Overall Design 29
8.1 Mass Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
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Appendix A Additional Stability Figures 30
Appendix B Engineering Drawings 31
Appendix C Airfoil Investigated 32
List of Figures
1 Elliptical Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Tapered Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 Rectangular Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 Wing Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5 Fuselage Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6 Empennage Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7 Flight Score Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8 Power Analysis for Plane Weight 0.9kg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9 Power Analysis for Plane Weight 1.47kg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10 Approximate Flight Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
11 Time Penalization Factor vs. Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
12 Possible Wing Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
13 Wing Sweep Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
14 Taper Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
15 Airfoil Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
16 Engineering Drawing of our Wing Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
17 Combined CL performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
18 Combined CM performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
19 Longitudinal Dynamic Modes Root Locus Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
20 Lateral Dynamic Modes Root Locus Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
21 Time Simulation of Spiral Mode Subject to Unit Perturbation . . . . . . . . . . . 28
22 Proposed Weight Distribution and Stability Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
23 Detailed Mass Position and Stability Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
24 Plane Design 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
25 Plane Design Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
26 Plane Design Birds-Eye View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
27 NACA0012 Airfoil Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
28 CLARK Y Airfoil Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
29 CLARK YM-15 Airfoil Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
30 GOE526 Airfoil Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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List of Tables
1 Wing Type Score Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Wing Conﬁguration Score Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Fuselage Type Score Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 Empennage Type Score Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5 Wing Design Speciﬁcation Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6 Dynamic Stability Mode Results Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7 Mass Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8 NACA0012 Airfoil Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9 CLARK Y Airfoil Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
10 CLARK YM-15 Airfoil Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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1. Design Overview
This aircraft design has essentially evolved to a payload compartment with wings and a tail, in
the form of a conventional design. The reason for this design is twofold: Ease of construction and
a result of analyzing the scoring function of the course. Since we decided to carry tennis balls for
our payload, it is vital that our design of the payload compartment while being large enough to
house the balls, also exhibited minimum aerodynamic features required to complete a fast lap of
the course, while being light. The current design involves 1.5m span, single tractor and high-wing
monoplane. The aircraft is expected to sit within the 1.5m x 1.15m planform limits, maximizing
aspect ratio and providing additional length for the fuselage fairing, thus maximizing aerodynamic
efficiency. The aircraft is expected to utilize foam/carbon-fiber composite construction for the
wing, tail and fuselage internal structure. The fuselage will have detachable high wing, allows
easy access to the payload. This payload-focused configuration minimizes the key parameters of
system weight through its structural efficiency and access to payloads, while providing sufficient
aerodynamic performance and propulsive power density.
2. Required Parameters
In order to create a successful conceptual design, it was determined that a number of parameters
needed to finalized. The goal of the first phase of design was to first find these parameters within
existing R/C designs and then pass this information through our course requirements and morph
the parameters.
• Cargo type & amount
• Wing aspect ratio (AR)
• Optimum Airfoil lift (CL)
• Thrust to Weight Ratio
• Wing Loading
• Take-off Distance (SL)
3. Trade Studies
Trade studies were conducted on the three main aspects of the aircraft: the wing, fuselage and
tail. Once the trade studies were over, we used the subsequent designs as our baseline for all the
research that was done when finding data on existing R/C plane designs.
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3.1. Wing Design
There were 3 choices for the types of wing that we could use.
Elliptical
Figure 1: Elliptical Wing
The elliptical wing offers a number of advantages in that it produces the minimum induced
drag for a given aspect ratio. Additionally, an elliptical wing also happens to be well suited for
heavy payload flights. While the wing is more efficient for L/D, its stall characteristics are quite
poor when compared to a rectangular wing. The biggest problem was the manufacturability of
an elliptical shaped wing.
Tapered
Figure 2: Tapered Wing
The tapered wing was a good option because it provided us with the benefits of an elliptical
wing while still being rectangular in shape. The tapered wing also has added advantages of from
the standpoint of weight and stiffness. The tapered wing was also a good choice from a weight
efficiency point of view since the amount of material as we go away from the root decreases.
Rectangular
The rectangular wing is the best wing for usage from a manufacturability point of view. The
rectangular wing has a tendency to stall first at the wing root and provides adequate stall warning,
adequate aileron effectiveness, and is usually quite stable. It is also often favored for the design
of low cost, low speed R/C planes.
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Figure 3: Rectangular Wing
Comparison
Table 1 is the end result of the trade study for the type of wing design. We decided to go with a
rectangular wing because it was able to easily beat competing designs based on factors such as
construction and flight performance.
Categories Weighting Rectangular Elliptical Tapered
Construction 40% 5 2 3
Flight Performance 30% 3 3.5 3
Theoretical Analysis 30% 3 2 2
Total 100% 3.8 2.45 2.7
Table 1: Wing Type Score Table
3.2. Wing Configuration
The second aspect that was studied was the different type of wing designs that we could have.
Figure 4: Wing Configuration Options
Typically, the simplicity and performance per weight of the monoplane would make it the
frontrunner. Despite this, the span and aspect ratio values we were aiming for made multi-wing
aircraft an attractive option. The final result for the wing design is depicted in table 2.
3.3. Fuselage Design
Fuselage studies focused on three different models.
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Categories Weighting Monoplane Biplane N-plane Tandem
Construction 40% 4 3.5 1 3.5
Flight Performance 30% 3 3.5 3 3
Theoretical Analysis 30% 3 3 3 3
Total 100% 3.4 3.35 1.1 3.20
Table 2: Wing Configuration Score Table
Figure 5: Fuselage Configuration Options
The factors that affected the choice of design was the wing loading characteristics along with
the capability of loading flexibility for the different types of balls. While the lifting fuselage
could potentially reduce wing loading, there was the potential problem of executing a low-weight
construction along with the excessive airfoil thickness to accommodate a variety of potential
loads. Additionally, while the flying provided good drag efficiency, a conventional design was
found to be often favored within the model building community due to ease of construction and
general experience within the R/C community about building conventional aircraft. The results
of the trade studies are displayed in table 3.
Categories Weighting Conventional Blended Flying Wing
Weight 20% 2 2 4
Flight Performance 20% 3 2 3
Total 100% 3.4 2 2.9
Table 3: Fuselage Type Score Table
3.4. Tail Design
Finally, Tail design focused on 3 different designs as depicted below.
There were a number of factors that affected the grading in the table below. Namely: While
the H-Tail increases effectiveness of the horizontal control surfaces through the winglets, it also
adds increased weight to the design since we require a number of vertical surfaces with their
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Figure 6: Empennage Configuration Options
control servos, which may not be considerable. While the V-Tail provided a number of benefits,
the team felt that we could get the same performance characteristics from a simpler design given
the speed we were traveling at. Additionally, no weight was expected to be saved by using a more
complicated tail design.
The conventional design is well known for its low risk and ease of control and manufacturability.
A conventional design is also widely used in the R/C community because it is the most efficient
tail design for the speed R/C planes are expected to fly it. Table 4 shows the final results of the
trade studies for tail design.
Categories Weighting Conventional T-tail V-tail
Flight Performance 20% 3 3.5 3.5
Total 100% 3.25 2.45 2.7
Table 4: Empennage Type Score Table
3.5. Overall Selection
Given the choices of the previous trade studies, the design that turned out to be best option was
a tractor R/C plane with a conventional fuselage & tail and a mono wing.
This design choice was based on factors of construction ability, ability to provide accurate
analysis, lowest structural weight and largest potential cargo space. Another factor that was also
included in the construction factor- was the general amount of problems people had in building
the planes.
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3.6. Parameters from Reference Designs
Once the design for the plane was decided, research was conducted on existing R/C planes.
Resulting reference parameters are shown here.
• Max take-off weight 1.5kg
• Aspect Ratio ≈ 5
• CLmax ≈ 1.5
• Stall Velocity ≈ 7 ∼ 8 m/s
4. Flight Score Optimization
In order to optimize the flight score:
FlightScore = CargoUnits × f × PF × TB × CB (1)
the equation was analyzed on a component by component basis. From the trade studies, our
group determined that we would use a conventional design and thus our configuration bonus CB
= 1.
Due to this loss in potential points, our group determined we would like to get the takeoff
bonus (TB) and thus we began our analysis with the assumption that TB = 1.2.
Using the above knowledge, the speed of the aircraft and the cargo units had to be optimized.
This was accomplished in a 2 stage optimization. The first stage consisted of optimizing cargo
units and PF, while the second step consisted of factoring in the benefits associated with increasing
speed, by forgoing cargo.
4.1. Cargo Selection
In order to assess the optimal cargo distribution a plot of the various flight scores vs. total weight
of the aircraft were plotted.
Figure 7 shows the various point distributions for ping pong/golf ball configurations and a
10 tennis ball cargo configuration. The 600g, 700g, 800g, 900g, and 1kg planes refer to empty
weights of the plane and the Flight score associated with loading such a plane with a permutation
of golf balls and ping pong balls. The tennis ball configuration refers to a plane that is fully
loaded with 10 tennis balls. Based on group discussions and previous year’s designs, an empty
weight of 900g was decided as a reasonable estimate for the empty weight of our aircraft. For a
tennis ball configuration that would amount to a total weight of 900g + 570g = 1.47kg where
570g is the weight of 10 tennis balls. Looking at Figure 7 it is evident that for a ping pong/golf
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Figure 7: Flight Score Analysis
ball configuration to provide the same flight score as the tennis ball configuration, the empty
weight would have to be merely 700g. Thus, our group decided our aircraft would carry 10 tennis
balls as our cargo.
4.2. Propeller Selection
Once the cargo was selected, a proper propeller had to be selected such that the aircraft could
take off within 25ft, to ensure the takeoff bonus, and to optimize the flight score with respect to
speed. In order to do this, a few estimates of flight parameters were made.
• Cd0 = 0.040
• Cl = 0.6
• e ≈ 0.8
• AR = 5
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• S = 0.3m2
• b = 1m
Using the above information and the provided equipment:
• Axi -2217-16 Brushless motor
• 1200-1300 15C mAhr battery
• Castel-Creations Thunderbird 18 speed controller
Mottocalc was used to generate a list of suggested propellers and power available for various
flight speeds. This information was used in conjunction with the power required formula:
Pr = Trv = qSCd0 +
W2
qSπeAR
v (2)
to generate plots of power required vs. power available. Using this information we can determine
the optimum propeller configuration. We first analyzed the maximum velocity of our empty plane.
Looking at Figure 8 it is evident that the maximum velocity of the empty aircraft is roughly
16.5m/s using a 9 × 6 propeller. In order to verify that this propeller is sufficient for our
take off needs, we then assessed the takeoff performance of this propeller using the following
approximation for ground roll:
Sg ≈
1.21W
9.81 × Clmax × T
W
− D
W
− µ 1 − L
W 0.7Vlo
(3)
Where Vlo is the lift off velocity and is approximated as:
Vlo = 1.1 ×
2W
ρSClmax
(4)
The coefficient of friction for the plywood runway was taken to be µ ≈ 0.1 and the maximum
lift coefficient was estimated to be Clmax ≈ 1.5. This led us to the estimation that Sg ≈ 15ft
which is sufficient for the takeoff bonus.
4.3. Flight Parameter Selection
The flight parameters were iteratively updated, from our initial guess above, in order to accom-
modate a 1.47kg plane. This led us to the following design parameters:
• Cd0 = 0.040
• Cl = 0.6
• e ≈ 0.8
• AR = 5.35
• S = 0.42m2
• b = 1.5m
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Figure 8: Power Analysis for Plane Weight 0.9kg
Using the above design parameters we would have a takeoff distance of 24ft. and a maximum
velocity defined by the intersection of the power available vs. power required curves:
Looking at Figure 9, it can be seen that the maximum velocity of the aircraft has dropped
from 16.5m/s. For comparison we decided to analyze the penalty associated with decreasing our
speed by 0.5m/s. This was done by approximating the overall flight distance to be roughly 200m.
Looking at figure 10, we approximated the turn distance at each of the markers to be roughly
30 m while the distance between markers is 70 m. Using this approximation, the nominal velocity
to fly at is 200m
20s
= 10m/s. Re-arranging the flight time penalty function gives Eq. 5
f = e
1.5 1−
t/200
tnominal/200
= e1.5(1−
vnominal
v ) (5)
As can be seen in figure 11, the penalty associated with reducing the speed by 0.5 m/s is only
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Figure 9: Power Analysis for Plane Weight 1.47kg
Figure 10: Approximate Flight Path
0.05 thus we decided the current propeller selection and ﬂight parameters were suﬃcient for the
initial design.
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Figure 11: Time Penalization Factor vs. Speed
5. Wing Design
One of the most important components of an aircraft design is the wings. The wing is the main
contributor of lift, drag, and stability. The design of a wing is an iterative process, however
the preliminary design can be divided into multiple aspects: the wing shape, wing position,
configuration, taper, sweep, airfoil selection, as well as the physical dimension.
5.1. Wing Position
One of the initial considerations to be made when designing the wing is the position of the wing.
Historically, aircraft wings have been installed on various locations on the wing to accomplish
different objectives. Below are a few common wing positions.
In the proposed design, a high wing structure configuration is used. The high wing configuration
allows both side of the wing to be joined into a single piece. This configuration raises the wing
higher above the ground, reducing the ground effect during takeoff and landing. The configuration
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Figure 12: Possible Wing Position
also adds stability to the aircraft, as more of the weight is now hanging underneath the wing.
Not only does a high wing provide more desirable aerodynamic performances, it also aids in the
structural and design aspects. The continuous nature of a high wing avoids the use a joints that
links the wing to the fuselage. This reduces the discontinuity in the shear flow in the wing, and
allows the wing to sustain more bending moment before breaking.
Lastly, a high wing is easier to manufacture. Manufacturability is often a major concern in the
design of an aircraft. A high wing allows a single piece of the wing to be attached to the top
of the fuselage, enabling easier attachment of the wing, and making repositioning of the wing a
possibility. With a high wing, the wing itself can even become a door to the cargo area, where
the entire wing could be lifted off during cargo loading, and reattached easily prior to flight.
5.2. Sweep
Figure 13: Wing Sweep Options
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Wing sweep is another common feature. In many commercial designs, wings are swept back to
create a seemingly larger chord. The sweep is beneficial to the yaw stability of the aircraft, due
to a higher lift induced on the wing which the aircraft is yawing, creating a returning moment
to cause the aircraft to turn back to proper direction. In addition, a swept back wing aids at
reducing the drag on the wing, as the wetted area becomes smaller. Sweep wing are also beneficial
in high speed aircrafts, as it allows the aircraft to reach speed closer to Mach 1 without the wing
going supersonic. Despite these benefits, the main concern with designing a swept wing is the
manufacture difficulty. A swept back wing and its benefits would not be dominate in the flight
condition of the proposed aircraft, and thus sweep was not implemented in the proposed aircraft.
5.3. Taper
Wing designers often add taper to the wing to make the wing more efficient. From aerodynamics,
a wing is most efficient in an elliptical configuration. Adding taper to a wing cause it to behave
more elliptical. Tapering a wing increases the aspect ratio, which contributes to many performance
benefits such as reduction in lift induced drag, more range, and better climb rate. Adding taper
to wings can also be structurally efficient. A wing experiences larger moment closer towards the
root of the wing. A tapered wing has an increased chord at the root of the wing, and reduces the
chord towards the tip of the wing. This allows the structure of the wing to be focuses on the area
of greater stress, and thus making the wing more structurally efficient.
Figure 14: Taper Options
However, tapered wing suffers from a reduced roll rate. As analyzed in the previous sections,
one of the key design targets is to minimize the time for the aircraft to loop around the field.
This implies a faster roll rate and thus tighter turning radius is desired. By increasing the taper,
a wing is also required to have a longer span, which often adds to the weight of the wing. With
these considerations, along with the manufacturability difficulty of manufacturing a tapered wing,
it is decided that the benefits associated with a tapered wing is not sufficient, and thus tapering
is not incorporated in the proposed design.
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5.4. Wing Size
Next, the size of the wing is determined. Immediately obvious is the effect of wing size on the
aerodynamic performances of the wing. It is know (Eq. 6) that both the lift and drag of the wing
is directly proportional to the area (S) of the wing.
L = qSCL (6)
D = qS Cd0 +
1
πeAR
C2
L
From previous score analysis, the aircraft should carry more load, at the same time accomplish
the flight path in minimal amount of time. To compromise between the two competing factors, an
analysis is done on the effect of lift and drag on the desired performance. The lift of the aircraft
is mainly associated with the amount of cargo unit it can carry. Higher lift from the wings means
the aircraft can carry more load and while sustain flight. Also, increasing the lift of the wing is
beneficial to the takeoff distance and climb rate. Increasing the lift implies a reduction in the
power required for the aircraft to maintain leveled flight. This means there are more excess power
for the aircraft to climb and maneuver. Increasing the lift also allows the aircraft to bank at a
steeper angle, thus contributing to a smaller turning radius. The increase in drag resulted from
increasing in S is also dominant. Higher drag increases the power required to fly, and reduces the
speed the aircraft can fly. These effects countered the benefits gained by increasing lift, and thus
a balance has to be draw to maximize the flight score. From previously conducted iteration on
the flight score, a final wing area is selected to be 0.42m2
. At this area, the lift at drag exists at
a balance such that in a typical flying condition, the score would be maximized.
5.5. Airfoil Selection
Lastly, the airfoil of the main wing is selected. Much consideration went into the selection of the
airfoil. Firstly, the airfoil should have a high CL to increase the lift without increasing the S too
much. Next, the airfoil should have a high CLmax in order to reduce the takeoff distance. The
airfoil should also have a high stall angle of attack, to reduce the risk of stalling during climb.
Lastly, for manufacturing purposes, the lower surface of the wing should be as flat as possible to
make attaching the wing simpler.
The airfoils that were considered are listed in appendix C.
From the comparison, a symmetrical airfoil such as NACA 0012 has significantly lower max
CL and lower stall angle. Further investigation into cambered airfoils yields the above selections
of CLARK Y and CLARK YM-15, as well as the GOE 526 reveals that only the GOE 526 and
CLARK YM-15 have high enough max CL for the proposed design. In addition, the GOE 526
19

has a significantly higher ‘lower surface flatness’, making manufacturing easier.
The final selection is the GOE 526 Airfoil. The specification as well as the drag polar of the
airfoil is shown in Fig 15.
Figure 15: Airfoil Data
This airfoil is a cambered airfoil with a lower surface flatness of 91.5%. The airfoil has a
maximum CL of 1.5, and a stall angle of 12.5 degrees. These specifications of the airfoil was
inputted into the MATLAB code discussed in the previous section, and the specifications satisfies
the criteria for the design. It is also decided that to increase the CL of the wing to maximize lift
capabilities, the airfoil is going to be attached to the fuselage with a 5 degrees angle of attack.
The 5 degrees angle also matches the max L/D angle of the airfoil, thus making the design more
efficient.
5.6. Wing Design Specification
With the above discussion on the features of the wing, a finalized wing design is generated. Shown
below is a drawing of the proposed wing.
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Figure 16: Engineering Drawing of our Wing Design
The detailed specifications of the wing is listed in table 5:
5.7. Wing Performance
With the above design, a preliminary performance estimate for the aircraft is done. A common
parameter for wing design is the L/D ratio. This is estimated to be around 15.8 during cruise
flight. This value seems reasonable at this point of design, as a Boeing 747 have a L/D or 17.
Next the wing loading is examined. The wing loading is defined in Eq 7
WingLoading =
W
S
(7)
This parameter is a indication of the maneuverability of the aircraft, where a lower wing loading
allows the aircraft to perform better. The wing loading for the proposed wing is estimated to be
3.1kg/m2
.
Lastly, the load factor of the wing is examined. The cruise lift / weight is estimated to be
1.82, which denotes that the aircraft is able to generate much higher lift than it requires in cruise.
These excess lift can contribute to turning capability, thus leads to a higher time score. The
21

Specification Value
S 0.42m2
AR 5.3
Chord 0.28m
Span 1.5m
α0 5◦
CL0 0.64
LCruise 23.7N
DCruise 1.5N
Table 5: Wing Design Specification Table
turning performance of the aircraft is governed by Eq 8
R =
V 2
g
√
n2 − 1
, n =
L
W
= 1.82 (8)
From this calculation, the turning radius of the aircraft is estimated to be 7.6m, where the
turning radius of an aircraft with n = 1.47 would be 15m. By increasing the lift to weight by 0.4,
the turning radius decreased by half.
6. Empennage Design
This section outlines design of horizontal and vertical stabilizer with consideration to static
longitudinal and lateral stability. The Stability performance and design is outlined in further
detail in section 7. Important consideration in empennage design additionally include control
surface parameters are determined using literature and control derivative through simulation
with XFLR5. Mainly the roll authority was considered. With varying airfoil by introducing
opposite flaps in Xfoil, the control derivative clδa
is estimated, which is then used to calculate the
demensionalized control derivative Clδa
for design geometries.
Final design is outlined in section 6.1 and section 6.2.
6.1. Horizontal Stabilizer
H-stab Desgin
• H-stab Span 0.58m
• H-stab CG to Aircraft CG lt ≈ 0.75m
• H-stab Chord ct = 0.14m
• Horizontal Tail Volume VH = 0.52
22

• H-stab Airfoil NACA0012
Aileron Desgin
• Fuselage to Aileron distance b1 = 0.3m along y-axis
• Fuselage to Aileron distance b2 = 0.7m along y-axis
• Aileron Depth 25% chord 0.07m
• Aileron Surface Area 0.056m2
(13.33% wing area)
6.2. Vertical Stabilizer
V-stab Desgin
• V-stab Root Chord 0.14m
• V-stab Sweep 16.7◦
• V-stab Height 0.15m
• V-stab Area 0.0165m2
Rudder Desgin
• Rudder Depth 0.58m
• Fuselage to Rudder distance b1 = 0.05m along z-axis
• Fuselage to Rudder distance b2 = 0.15m along z-axis (maximum height)
6.3. Theoretical Performance
An important aspect of the tail design is to examine the aircraft’s overall performance with the
addition of the tail. We have modeled the aircraft as a wing and tail configuration at the proper
geometry setting and examined the combined lift performance.
The analysis indicates that sufficiently linear coefficient of lift versus angle of attack of the
wing is achieved for probable range of flight condition. This is shown in figure 17 and the star
at CL,α=4◦ = 0.67 indicates condition at take-off and appropriate CL value (see Section 4.3) is
generated with the initial angle of attack on the wing.
The combined lift is optimized for various tail offset angle and the best angle was found to be
αt = α − 5◦
from angle of attack of wing (α).
23

Figure 17: Combined CL performance
7. Stability
In consideration to stability of our model aircraft, we have considered static as well as dynamic
stability. Static stability is considered from early phase of our design beginning with simplified
back of the envelope calculations and iterations with detailed mass and force distribution using
MATLAB. Furthermore, XFLR5 is used to aid stability analysis by providing stability derivatives
for assumed flight conditions and solving eigenvalue problem pertaining to the dynamic stability
mode analysis. We have determined through iterative design approach between mass CG and
stability as well as performance measures for some suitable values of horizontal and vertical
tail volume found in literature. This parameter ensures controllability given the wing as well
as some sense of stability, and design is verified through XFLR static and dynamic stability
analysis. The iterative method include balancing center of gravity (CG) of the aircraft as well as
stability parameters such as neutral point and aerodynamic center of the wing(see section 7) and
monitoring the stability measures.We provide an analysis of the static and dynamic stability of
final design here.
24

7.1. Static Stability
For static stability, main design concern revolve around longitudinal static stabilities for con-
ventional design. Two criteria governing longitudinal stability consideration are summarized in
Eq 8a and 8b.
∂CM
∂α
< 0 (8a)
CM,α=0 > 0 (8b)
Figure 18: Combined CM performance
Combined Moment Coeﬃcient Similar to the combined lift, we have computed the combined
moment from iterated design geometries considering aerodynamic center and neutral point, in
combination with CG of the aircraft. The combined moment plot versus angle of attack of wing
in ﬁgure18 indicates a nice negative slope for stability until a relatively large angle of attack. We
have also shown a static margin with respect to mean aerodynamic chord (MAC) of 10.7%.
The star point at zero angle of attack shows the aircraft’s initial positive moment, and the
presence of zero CM shows the aircraft’s ability to trim.
We can thus conclude that our preliminary design is theoretically longitudinally stable.
25

Longitudinal Static Stability Parameters
A more detailed graphical visualization of our stability parameters with respect to loading can be
seen in Figure 22 of Appendix A. The detailed longitudinal static stability parameters are listed
as follows.
• Neutral Point from Tip is 496.91mm.
• Aerodynamic Center from Tip is 420mm.
• Aircraft CG from Tip is 472.03mm.
• Stability Margin is 9%MAC.
• ∂CM
∂α
≈ −0.007.
7.2. Dynamic Stability
Dynamic stability analysis involved mainly looking at stability derivatives to estimate dynamic
modes and time simulation of aircraft to perturbation. The result shows that all of our longitudinal
dynamic modes are stable with good damping where handling quality is concerned. For lateral
stability, we have unstable spiral mode characteristic of conventional design. However, the time
to double is found to be 13.8 seconds. Even though analysis does not consider the dihedral effect
of the high wing configuration, the extra margin from 5 seconds required from pilot is sufficient
for controllability although there presents instability in this mode. The detailed dynamic stability
parameters are listed in table 6.
Modes Eigen Values Period Damping
Short Period −13.8316 ± 6.3223i 0.413s 0.91
Phugoid −0.0438 ± 0.3333i 18.87s 0.13
Spiral 0.0503 N/A N/A
Roll Damping −59.7392 N/A N/A
Dutch Roll −1.0861 ± 6.3796i 0.97s 0.168
Table 6: Dynamic Stability Mode Results Table
The stability is confirmed by looking at the root locus plot for longitudinal and lateral dynamic
modes shown in figure 19 and figure 20. A time simulation corresponding to the lateral instability
is shown in figure 21. This simulation shows the spiral mode under unit perturbation growing.
The time to double is roughly 13.8 seconds which gives enough controllability with a margin for
neglecting dihedral effect of high wing.
26

Figure 19: Longitudinal Dynamic Modes Root Locus Plot
Figure 20: Lateral Dynamic Modes Root Locus Plot
27

Figure 21: Time Simulation of Spiral Mode Subject to Unit Perturbation
28

8. Overall Design
The overall engineering drawings of our design can be seen in Appendix B. This figure also shows
the loading possibility as well as the stability parameters. Wing design is summarized in Sec 5.6,
tail design is summarized in Sec 6, and we have chosen a 9 × 6 propeller.
8.1. Mass Breakdown
Preliminary mass breakdown is shown in table 7.
Item Mass(g) % Mass
Motor & Propeller 90 6%
Battery & Receiver 110 7%
Fuselage & Landing Gear 60 4%
Cargo 570 39%
Wing 150 10%
Empennage 40 3%
Interconnects 50 3%
Margin 400 27%
Total Take-Off Weight (Proposed) 1470 100%
Table 7: Mass Breakdown
The majority of our mass is dedicated towards the cargo. In contrast, we have gone into
great length to reduce weight on Fuselage by coming up with optimum cargo space allocation in
consideration of aerodynamics as well as flight score. We have contributed a significant 27% of
margin. The detailed components such as motor, propeller, battery, and receiver are allocated
relatively insignificant amount because we have a better grasp on what they will weight. In fact
we know the exact weighting for the component themselves. Our empennage estimate include
the horizontal stabilizer, and any control surface and mechanisms, as well as the fin and rudder
which we have not yet decided. Interconnects include the boom that connects empennage to our
fuselage. Additional leeway in mass will go into making the boom more aerodynamic, or house
more cargo as detailed design and analysis becomes available. We have tried to balance our cargo
around the center of CG, and through a variable optimization script, we iterated the position
of all the component with the estimated mass budget for an estimated CG. The final result is
presented in a drawing in figure 22 of Appendix A.
29

Appendix A. Additional Stability Figures
Figure 22: Proposed Weight Distribution and Stability Parameters
Figure 23: Detailed Mass Position and Stability Parameters
The origin is referenced at 450mm from the front tip of the plane, which is the original proposed
CG. Design is done based around this point and iterated to give the values shown here. neutral
point is at 46.908mm after origin and CG is located 22.033mm after origin. The plane mass is
estimated at around 1.39kg at this point of time.
30

Appendix B. Engineering Drawings
Figure 24: Plane Design 3D View
Figure 25: Plane Design Side View
31

Figure 26: Plane Design Birds-Eye View
Appendix C. Airfoil Investigated
Figure 27: NACA0012 Airfoil Shape
MaxCL 0.972
Stallangle 7.5
Lowerflatness 17.1%
Table 8: NACA0012 Airfoil Information
32

Figure 28: CLARK Y Airfoil Shape
MaxCL 1.295
Stallangle 8.5
Lowerflatness 71.8%
Table 9: CLARK Y Airfoil Information
Figure 29: CLARK YM-15 Airfoil Shape
MaxCL 1.598
Stallangle 14.0
Lowerflatness 77.4%
Table 10: CLARK YM-15 Airfoil Information
Figure 30: GOE526 Airfoil Shape
33

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