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DESIGN
T. BANU
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SG / AERONAUTICAL
PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF AIRCRAFT DESIGN
• The design process involves the use of knowledge in various fields to reach a product that meets the
• The design of an airplane involves gathering knowledge in areas like aerodynamics, structures,
• The objective is to reach the configuration of an airplane, which will satisfy aforementioned
requirements.
PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF AIRCRAFT DESIGN
The design of an airplane is a complex engineering task. It generally involves the following.
❑ Obtaining the specifications of the airplane, selecting the type and determining the
geometric parameters.
❑ Fabrication of prototype.
❑ Determination of airplane performance, stability, and structural integrity from flight tests.
CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES
It is generally based on
• Military airplanes – Fighter, Bomber, Interceptor, Reconnaissance and airplanes for logistic
• economy in operation,
The booms provide required tail arm for the tail surfaces
CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES BASED ON
FUSELAGE
Some airplanes with twin fuselage had been designed in the past
CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES BASED ON
HORIZONTAL STABILIZER
• In a conventional configuration, the horizontal stabilizer is located behind the
wing
• In some airplanes there is no horizontal stabilizer and the configuration is called
tailless design.
• In these airplanes, the functions of elevator and aileron are performed by
ailevons located near the wing tips.
• When both ailevons (on left and right wings) move in the same direction, they
function as elevators and when the two ailevons move in opposite direction,
they function as ailerons.
• In some airplanes, the control in pitch is obtained by a surface located ahead of
the wing. This configuration is called canard configuration
CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES BASED ON
HORIZONTAL STABILIZER
fuselage
The configuration of an airplane is finalized after giving consideration to the following factors.
• Aerodynamics
• Lay-out peculiarities
• Manufacturing procedures
• Drag
• Lift
• Interference effects
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
AERODYNAMICS
Drag
• This requires
– THIN WINGS
– SLENDER FUSELAGE
– SWEEP (Λ).
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
Lift
AERODYNAMICS
The airplane must be able to develop sufficient lift under various flight conditions including
maneuvers.
The maximum lift coefficient also decides the landing speed.
These considerations require proper choice of
(a) Aerofoil
(b) Means to prevent flow separation
(c) High lift devices.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
AERODYNAMICS
Interference effects
• In aerodynamics the flows past various components like the wing, the fuselage and the tail are
usually studied individually.
• In an airplane these components are in proximity of each other and the flow past one
component affects the flow past the others(components).
• The changes in aerodynamic forces and moments due to this proximity are called interference
effects.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
AERODYNAMICS
Interference effects
• The lay-out of the airplane should be such that increase in drag and decrease in lift due to
interference effects are minimized.
• These can be achieved in subsonic airplanes by proper fillets at the joints between (a) wing and
fuselage, (b) tail and fuselage and (c) wing and engine pods.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
LOW STRUCTURAL WEIGHT
The weight of the aircraft must be as low as possible.
This implies use of
• High strength to weight ratio material
• Aerofoil with high thickness ratio
• Wing with low Aspect Ratio
• Relieving loads
The airplane structure must be strong enough, to take all permissible flight loads and stiff enough
to avoid instabilities like, divergence, aileron reversal and flutter.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
LAYOUT PECULIARITIES
• The specific function of the airplane often decides its shape
• The fuselage of a cargo airplane generally has a rectangular cross section and a large cargo
door.
• The height of fuselage floor should be appropriate for quick loading and unloading.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
• During the detail design stage, attention must be paid to the manufacturing processes.
• The cost of manufacture and quality control also must be kept in mind.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
COST AND OPERATIONAL ECONOMICS
• The DOC relates to the cost of hourly operation of the airplane viz. cost of fuel, lubricants,
• IOC relates to crew cost, insurance cost, depreciation of airplane and ground equipment,
• For a personal plane lower initial cost of the airplane may be more important
• For a long range passenger airplane lower cost of fuel may be the primary consideration.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONFIGURATION -
INTERACTION OF VARIOUS FACTORS
• Some of the considerations mentioned may lead to conflicting requirements.
• Wing with an airfoil of relatively higher thickness ratio, has lower structural weight but at the
same time has higher drag.
MERITS OF DIFFERENT PLANE LAYOUTS
High Wing configuration
Merits :
• Allows placing fuselage closer to ground, thus allowing loading and unloading without special
ground handling equipment.
• Jet engines & propeller have sufficient ground clearance without excessive landing gear length
leading to lower landing gear weight.
MERITS OF DIFFERENT PLANE LAYOUTS
High Wing configuration
Merits :
• For low speed airplanes, weight saving can be effected by strut braced wing
MERITS OF DIFFERENT PLANE LAYOUTS
High Wing configuration
Merits :
• For short take off and landing (STOL) airplanes, the high wing configuration has the following
specific advantages.
(b) Engines are away from the ground and hence ingestion of debris rising from unprepared
runways is avoided.
MERITS OF DIFFERENT PLANE LAYOUTS
High Wing configuration
Merits :
(c) Prevents floating of wing due to ground effect
• A low-wing configuration has unstable contribution to the longitudinal and lateral static
stability.
• In addition that for low-wing airplanes the dihedral angle may be decided by need to avoid
wing tip hitting the ground during a bad landing.
• A wing with high value of dihedral may require higher vertical tail area to prevent tendency to
Dutch roll.
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN
The design process can be divided into the following three stages.
• Project feasibility study.
• Preliminary design.
• Design project
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN - PROJECT
FEASIBILITY STUDY.
The aim of this study is to
(d) Visibility.
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN - PROJECT
FEASIBILITY STUDY.
iii) Study of the relevant design requirements as laid down by the civil and military regulating agencies.
The military airplanes are governed by more stringent regulations called MIL specifications in USA.
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN - PROJECT
FEASIBILITY STUDY.
iv) Evaluation of existing designs of similar airplanes and possibility of incorporating new concepts.
vi) Laying down preliminary specifications which may consist of the following.
• Performance: Maximum speed, Maximum rate of climb, range, endurance, rate of turn, radius of turn, take-off
• Payload.
• Maneuverability.
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN - PRELIMINARY
DESIGN
This stage of design process aims at producing a brochure containing preliminary drawings and
• Wind tunnel and structural testing on models of airplane configuration arrived after
preliminary design stage. These tests serve as a check on the correctness of the estimated
This helps in
Currently this stage is avoided by the use of CAD(Computer Aided Design) packages which
Currently CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) plays an important role in reducing the number
of tests to be carried-out.
In CFD, the equations governing the fluid flow are solved numerically. The results provide flow
patterns, drag coefficient, lift coefficient, moment coefficient, pressure distribution etc.
STAGES IN AIRPLANE DESIGN - DESIGN
PROJECT
Through the results may not be very accurate at high angles of attack, they are generally accurate
near the design point. Further, they provide information on the effects of small changes in the
• Fabrication of prototypes
– These are the first batch of full scale airplane. Generally six prototypes are constructed.
– Some of them are used for verifying structural integrity and functioning of various systems. Others
requirements
• Obtaining type certificate: it is a legal document, issued by a regulating agency like DGCA in
India allowing the manufacturer to offer the item (e.g. airplane) for sale.
Thank you
• Cost analysis While purchasing a vehicle generally, the cost of the vehicle, running expenses and
maintenance are considered.
• In the case of an airplane the cost analysis is more complex because the design and development
of airplane is a very expensive activity and its cost must be added to the cost of fabrication of the
airplane.
• Further, use of airplane requires hangars, maintenance facilities and airport equipment.
• The operation and maintenance of airplane requires significant investment and needs services of a
large body of professionals.
• Earlier way of carrying out the cost analysis was to calculate the direct operating cost and indirect
operating cost.
• However, the current approach is to calculate the life cycle cost which is the cost involved over
the useful life of the airplane.