L2: Aircraft Characteristics

Dr Veena Venudharan
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Palakkad
Significance on Airport Design
• To create airport facilities for accommodating wide variety of aircrafts

• Aircraft vary widely in terms of physical dimensions & performance

• Aircrafts may be categorized based on a large number of specifications

• Certain aircraft specifications become critical, depending on the portion of

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Aircraft Parts

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Aircraft Movement
• Three controls:
• Roll: Rotation around the front-to-back axis; x-axis
• Yaw: Rotation around the vertical axis; z-axis
• Pitch: Rotation around the side-to-side axis; y-axis

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Forces on Aircraft
• Weight: is a force caused by gravity & always directed towards the center
of the earth
• Lift: is the force that holds an airplane in the air. Wings create most of the
lift. Opposing force to weight. Perpendicular to flight direction
• Drag: is the force that acts opposite to the direction of motion. Air
• resistance caused by friction & diff. in air
pressure
• Thrust: is a force that moves an aircraft in the
direction of the motion. Opposing force to
drag. Generated by propulsion system
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Dimensional Standards

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Dimensional Standards
• Length: distance from front tip of the fuselage to the back end of the tail section,
known as empennage
• To determine the length of an aircraft’s parking area, hangars
• In commercial service airport, the length of largest aircraft performing at least 5 departures per day
determines the required amount of aircraft rescue & firefighting equipment on airfield
• Wingspan: distance from wingtip to wingtip of the aircraft’s main wings
• To determine the width of aircraft parking areas & gate spacing,
• To determine the width & separations of runways & taxiways on the airfield.
• Height: distance from the ground to the top of the aircraft’s tail section
• To determine the height of aircraft parking areas, hangars, etc.
• Wheelbase: distance between center of the aircraft’s main landing gear & center of its
nose gear
• Wheel track: distance between outer wheels of an aircraft’s main landing gear
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Dimensional Standards
Minimum Turning Radius
• Dependent on wheelbase & wheel track
• Design of taxiway turnoffs, intersections &
other areas on airfield requiring aircraft turn
• Function of nose gear steering angle; larger the
angle, smaller the radii
• Corresponds to max. nose gear steering angle,
approx. 50o
𝑅180𝑜 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 = 𝑏 tan 90 − 𝛽 + 𝑡ൗ2
b = wheelbase of an aircraft
t = wheel track of the aircraft
β = maximum steering angle

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Landing Gear Configurations
• Three basic gear configurations:
• Single-wheel: Main gear having a total of two wheels, one on each strut
• Dual-wheel: Main gear having a total of four wheels, two on each strut
• Dual-tandem: Two sets of wheels on each strut

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Landing Gear Configurations
• More complex for largest of commercial service aircraft than the simple
configurations
• Critical role in distributing weight of an aircraft - design of airfield
pavements

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Aircraft Weight
• Operating Empty Weight (OEW): basic weight of the aircraft including crew & all
necessary gear required for flight but not including payload & fuel. Design of
maintenance hangars, aircraft storage facilities, etc.
• Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW): OEW of an aircraft plus the weight of its payload.
• Maximum Structural Payload: ZFW - OEW
• Maximum Ramp Weight: maximum weight authorized for ground maneuver including
taxi & run-up fuel
• Maximum Gross Take-off Weight: maximum weight authorized at brake release for
takeoff. Excludes taxi & run-up fuel. Varies with atmospheric conditions
• Maximum Structural Take-off Weight (MSTOW): maximum gross take-off weight for an
aircraft operating at sea level elevation at a temperature of 59°F (15°C). Std. design
weight measurement used in airport planning & design
• Maximum Structural Landing Weight (MSLW): structural capability of the aircraft in
landing. Less than or nearly equal to MSTOW
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Engine Types
• Piston engine: propeller-driven aircraft powered by
high-octane gasoline-fed reciprocating engines. Most
small general aviation aircraft
• Turboprops: propeller-driven aircraft powered by
turbine engines
• Jet engines: aircraft which obtain the thrust directly
from a turbine engine & not from propeller. Two types:
• Turbojet: engine consists of a compressor, a combustion
chamber, & a turbine at the rear of the engine
• Turbrofan: turbojet engine to which large-diameter blades
has been added, usually located in front of the compressor.
Single row of blades - single stage; two rows of blades -
multistage
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Payload - Range: Elbow Chart
• Range: maximum distance aircraft can fly without refueling
• Range increases; payload decreases
• Pt A: Range at max. structural payload, Ra. Take-off at MSTOW
• Pt B: Range at max. fuel, Rb. Fuel tank full at
start of journey. Take-off at MSTOW. Payload
reduced from Pa to Pb
• Pt C: Range at zero payload ~ Ferry range. Take-
off at < MSTOW
• Line DE: trade-off between payload and range
when range is dictated by MSLW

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Wake Turbulence/ Wake Vortex
• When wings lift an aircraft, vortices form near the ends of
wings
• Vortices are made up of two counter-rotating cylindrical air
masses about a wingspan apart
• Hazardous to other aircraft encountering them in flight
𝐴𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
𝑇𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑥 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 ∝
𝐴𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
• Heavier the vehicle, the faster the vortex settles
• Duration of vortex dependent on the velocity of the wind
• FAA & ICAO divide aircraft into three classes for the
purpose of wake-turbulence separation minima

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Air Pressure & Temperature
• Aircraft performance depend on density of the air
• Greater the density, more air molecules flow over the wings creating more
lift, allowing aircraft to fly
• Density decreases when air pressure decreases or air temperature
increases
• Standard temperature at sea level is 59 oF or 15 oC
• Standard pressure at sea level is 29.92126 inHg or 1015 mb
• Every increase in altitude of 1000 ft, the temperature decreases by approx.
3.5°F or 2°C
𝑃𝑜 𝑇𝑜 5.2561
=
𝑃 𝑇
Temperature is expressed in “absolute” or Rankine units
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Wind Speed & Direction
• Speed of aircraft are measured in two ways:
• Groundspeed - speed of the aircraft relative to the ground
• Airspeed - speed of an aircraft relative to the air flowing over the airfoil, or wing
• Two genres of wind:
• Headwind - the wind is blowing in the opposite direction
• Tailwind - the wind is blowing in the same direction
𝐴𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 + 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
𝐴𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 − 𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
• For aircraft take-offs & landings - Headwind
• For aircraft flying at altitude - Tailwind

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Wind Speed & Direction
• Aircraft may not fly into direct headwind or tailwind
• Aircraft needs to take consider the effect of crosswinds
• During calm conditions, direction toward which aircraft is pointing
(heading), is same direction as aircraft is traveling (tracking)
• Crab angle - angle between desired track & calculated heading
𝑉𝑐
sin 𝑥 =
𝑉ℎ
• 𝑉𝑡 = 𝑉ℎ cos 𝑥
• 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝑉𝑡 − 𝑉𝑤 sin 𝑥

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