AE1350 Winter 2003 Assignment # 4

 

1. Form teams of TWO each.

2. Each team will do two designs. Each person must participate fully in each design - the tests will test how much you know, pretty strictly.

3. Each team will select one airplane concept and one space concept to design, from the list below. Decide if your team will do "A2 &S3" or "A3 &S1" or any other combination of one A-type and one S-type.

4. Project Step Deadlines

1. Feb. 24: Decide which two projects you are doing, after preliminary research into all the projects:

2. Feb. 26: Do preliminary work on both, to understand the issues, post your work on your own website:

3. Feb. 28: Decide your team (start looking now)

4. End of 2nd week of March..

Complete all aircraft calculations upto engine performance:

Space design: Problem definition, deciding the scope of your project, determining what information is needed (based on a lot of searching, thought and calculation already done):

5. 3rd week of March:

Aircraft range calculation, refined weight estimate.

First iteration of the concept completed with calculations: end of 3nd week of March

6. 4th week of March:

Aircraft configuration drawn and performance calculated

Second iteration completed

7. 1st week of April: Aircraft design report complete.

Space design report draft complete.

8. 2nd week of April: All designs completed.


 
 
# Aircraft Design Type - "A" Space Design Type- "S"
1 Supersonic Airliner - 300 passenger, Mach 3 cruise. Range decided by you based on market arguments. Hydrogen fueled.   Vehicle to shuttle between lunar surface and L-2 Lagrangian Point. Only hydrogen fuel can be shipped regularly from Earth - use lunar-derived materials for all other items.
2 Strike aircraft - carrier-based. Able to carry 4000 lb of weapon load. You decide the range & speed.   Lunar-based solar-electric  power plant
3 High-Altitude Interceptor. As per discussion in class.  Lunar-based Mass Driver Launch System
4 "Hotel-in-the-Sky" hydrogen-fueled  Jumbo Jet  (subsonic/transonic). You decide the range and the cruise speed.   Hydrogen-based Mars Cycler which keeps orbiting  between Mars and Earth

 

For the Spaceconcepts, you will have a few papers and reports to use to read up and get numbers. The aircraft design will proceed through much  more uniform steps than the space concept design; however, both require good thinking, imagination, and good calculations.

Process

Aircraft Design: Follow the steps outlined in your course. List these steps on your web page as chapter headings, and start filling them in as your design proceeds.

Space concept: Start with a description of the concept, why it is needed, etc., and then list the different aspects needed to be considered. Then start filling in detail on each.

References:

1. See the material on the web pages lined from

http://www.adl.gatech.edu/research/tff/index.html

2. Ganesh, B.A., Wanis, S.S., Komerath, N.M.,   "Electromagnetic Construction of a 1 km-Radius Radiation Shield".  "Space Manufacturing 2001"  Space Studies Institute Conference, Princeton, NJ, May 2001.


About Design Report formats

Policy on teamwork:  Unequal grades  may be assigned to team members unless  both have contributed about equally to the team’s effort. This  may be judged, among other things, by exam performance on questions related to the assignment.  On the other hand, failure to work with your teammate,  and to  give him/her  the opportunity to participate,  can also cost heavily.  Make sure that you pull your  own  weight, and that you allow enough opportunity  for your teammate to contribute.

Your Design Report should be posted on your web page, but must have distinct pages like a printed report.  In other words, you should be able to print out a copy and show it to prospective employers as an example of your work.

The report must have a Title Page, and then the following:

1. Summary: a 1-page summary of what is in the rest of the report. You write this last, but put it at the front of the report.

2. List of Contents: major sections and their starting page numbers.

3. Introduction:  Here you say in about 1 paragraph that this is a conceptual  design for a ………….

4. Mission Specification and  Typical Mission Profile

5. Preliminary Estimate of Take Off Weight. List assumptions, and assumed weight fractions. Justify the payload fraction using the data that you obtained.

6.  Wing loading, area and aspect ratio: show how you arrived at these quantities.

7. Selection of engines. Also give the values of engine bypass ratio and the lapse rate equation and the equation for TSFC  and how it varies with flight conditions.

8.  Aerodynamics & Performance: 

a) Speed for minimum drag: explain how this is done, and calculate this speed for various altitudes. Plot this speed as a function of altitude, first at T.O.W., and then at a condition where approximately half the fuel is gone.

b) Stalling speed, and the thrust required at this speed, as functions of altitude: this is the speed at which the lift coefficient reaches the specified value of  takeoff CLmax for your aircraft.

c) Determination of thrust required (which is equal to the drag in straight and level flight) and thrust available, as functions of speed and altitude. Plot these.

d) Takeoff field length at max TOW vs. airport altitude, for density altitude sea level to 10,000 feet. Also, takeoff field length vs. weight at takeoff (from max TOW to half-fuel value) at 0, 5000 and 8000 feet altitudes.

9. Determination of fuel weight and volume: how you determined this. Also, range at full fuel load.

10. Refined Estimate of Structural Weight  available for building the aircraft, using your calculations of engine weight and fuel weight.

11. Wing Geometry: decide on the shape of the wings.

12  Fuselage dimensions and layout of weapons etc. if any.

13. Landing gear dimensions and placement, implications for airport gate requirements.

14. 3-view of the aircraft.

 

Any other special features of the aircraft / mission should be presented at the appropriate places, or add new sections.