Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aircraft Configuration Development
Aircraft Configuration Development
Homebuilts
Single engine piston-propeller driven
Twin engine piston-propeller driven
Business jets
Regional turboprops
Jet Transports
Military trainers
Fighters
Military patrol, bombers and transports
Amphibious and float airplanes
Supersonic cruise airplanes
Janes All The Worlds Aircraft is an excellent reference source for such a historical survey. It has been
published annually since 1909.
In the text that follows, a number of airplanes in each of the above categories are listed and the
common and uncommon features of each are identified. Three views of the aircraft listed are shown in a
document that has already been distributed.
Homebuilts:
Homebuilt airplanes are airplanes that are usually built by one person at home in a garage or workshop.
They can be designed by the individual who will actually be the builder or can be built from kits. This
category also includes scaled down versions of some of the more popular WWII fighter aircraft.
Homebuilts do not require FAA certification, but the requirement that at least 50% of the airplane must
be built by the individual who will be the pilot is strictly enforced. Examples are:
Coates S.A. III Swalesong
Sequoia Model 300
Piel C.P. 1320
Turner T-40 C
Sizer Saphire
Isaacs Spitfire
Reed Falcon
Aerocar Coot Model B
Pottier P 110 TS
Piel C.P. Pinocchio
Piel C.P. 500
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Nine of the above twelve have a low wing. One is high wing, one is tandem wing and one is a biplane.
Only one uses wing bracing (the tandem wing), all others have cantilevered wings.
Wing planforms vary; six are rectangular (Hershey bar), three are moderately tapered and two are
elliptical. Only one has any significant quarter-chord sweep (the biplane). Wing aspect ratios vary from
5.5 to 7.0.
Nine have conventional tail configurations. One has a T-tail, one is a twin-boom with H-tail, and the
tandem wing has vertical tails on the tips of the aft wing.
A single engine is mounted to the front of the fuselage on eleven of the twelve. The Aerocar has a single
engine mounted to the top of the fuselage in a nacelle. The Aerocar is also the only amphibious airplane
in the group.
Six have tricycle gear and six are tail draggers.
Single Engine Piston-Propeller Driven Airplanes
This category includes general utility, also known as General Aviation airplanes, airplanes specifically
designed for aerobatic competition, and the land based and carrier based fighters and dive bombers of
WW II.
General Aviation aircraft are owned or rented by private pilots usually for the sole purpose of enjoying
flying as a hobby. Some aircraft in this category are also used for civilian pilot training. Seating capacity is
limited to two or three passengers. General Aviation aircraft require FAA certification and licensing,
must adhere to a strict maintenance schedule, and must be maintained by A&P licensed mechanics.
Examples are:
Zlin 43
Interceptor 400
Poschel P-300 Equator
Piper Tomahawk
Cessna Skylane RG
Cessna Stationair 8
Trago-Mills SAH-1
Valmet L-70 Multitrainer
Robin R 3140
Socata Tobago
Beechcraft Musketeer Super R
Piper PA-301T Turbo Saratoga
Nine of those listed are low wing and three are high wing. Five have a rectangular wing planform and
three have straight tapered planforms. Four of the planforms have an inboard rectangular section and a
moderately tapered outboard section. Such planforms attempt to approximate an elliptic shape in an
attempt to maximize the span efficiency. Four exhibit a wing glove. A wing glove is often used to
provide additional volume for fuel or for the main landing gear when it is retracted. Wing aspect ratios
vary from 5.75 to 8.0. The high wing configurations have zero to 1.75 of dihedral while low wing
configurations have from 3.5 to 8 of dihedral. All exhibit little or no quarter-chord sweep.
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Nine have conventional tails and three have T tails. All are tractors and eleven have the engine mounted
to the front of the aircraft while one (the Poschel P 300) has the prop located at the vertex of the T tail
(this is very unusual).
All have tricycle landing gear but only three have retractable gear.
Twin Engine Piston-Propeller driven airplanes.
Twin engine propeller driven airplanes are designed for longer range and higher payload capacity than
single engine airplanes. The longer range and higher payload drive the designs to twin engines either
because of the impractical size of the single engine (and propeller) that would be required or simply
because a single engine with the required horsepower is not available. Most of the modern airplanes in
this category are put to use by small companies whose business requires a lot of regional travel or by
small, short-hop airlines. They generally have a seating capacity of six to ten passengers. Examples are:
Partenavia P 68C Victor
Piaggio P 166-DL 3
Piper PA-31-350 Chieftain
Piper PA-44-180T Turbo Seminole
Piper Cheyenne III
Cessna Conquest II
Cessna Model T 303 Crusader
Cassna Model 402C
Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander
Beechcraft Duchess 76
Cessna Model 336 Skymaster
Beechcraft Duke A 60
Eight are low wing and four are high wing. Wing planform is rectangular or moderately tapered in all
cases. Five have an added wing glove. Aspect ratios and dihedral are all in the same range as their single
engine counterparts.
Eleven have engines mounted to the wings. Ten are tractor; one is a pusher and one a pusher/tractor
(the Skylane). Seven have conventional tail, three have a T tail, one has a cruciform tail and the Skylane
is a twin boom with H-tail. All have tricycle landing gear.
Business Jets
Business jets are used by large corporations for business travel. Many corporations have found that it is
more economical and a lot more convenient to own their own aircraft rather than travel via commercial
airlines. Some can carry up to 24 passengers for distances in excess of 4000 miles. Examples are:
Lockheed Jetstar
Gates Learjet 35A
Gulfstream III
Dassault-Breguet Mystere-Falcon 50
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Fighters exhibit mid to low wing configurations and engine(s) integrated with the fuselage, which is
conducive to minimizing wave drag (i.e., better area ruling). Single vertical tail arrangements are
generally prevalent, although most have stabilators. Twin vertical tails (F-14, F-15, F-18 and F-22) are
sometimes required because a single vertical tail would be much too large, based upon physical size
constraints (hangar size, maintainability, etc.) than two smaller tails.
Military Patrol, Bomber and Transport Airplanes
These aircraft are designed with objectives similar to Jet Transports, i.e., to carry a large payload for long
range. Unlike the Jet Transport, however, bomber and patrol airplanes in this category are designed for
a round trip (return to their origin) and hence mission radius becomes the dominant design factor.
Examples of these are:
Boeing B-52H
BAE HS Nimrod MR
Lockheed YC-141B
Antonov AN-22 Antheus
Ilyushin IL-38
Ilyushin IL-76T
McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender
Lockheed C-130 Herculese
Lockheed C-5B Galaxy
Lockheed P-3C Orion
Grumman E2C Hawkeye
Boeing E-3A AWACS
Seven are high wing and five are low wing configurations. Seven are jets and five are turboprops. All jets
in this category have significant wing sweep (25 to 38) while the turboprops do not due to the lower
cruise speeds typical of propeller-driven airplanes. Five of the high wing airplanes have negative dihedral
(-2 to -5.3) and two have positive dihedral (1.4 and 2.0). All of the low wing airplanes have positive
dihedral between 3.5 and 6.2. All are conventional configurations. Seven have conventional tails and
three have T tails. The AN-22 has an H-tail. The E2C has an H-tail with additional vertical tail surfaces
located at roughly the midpoint of the horizontal stab. The additional vertical surfaces allow for
reduction in the size of the surfaces at the ends of the horizontal stab. Since this is a carrier based
airplane, height limitations, in addition to takeoff rotation and landing ground clearance, precluded
making the vertical surfaces any larger so an additional set of surfaces was added.
The B-52H is a long range bomber designed around a long bomb bay. This forced the high wing layout
and the tandem landing gear. The tandem landing gear does not allow for rotation during takeoff, and
hence takeoff distance is longer than it could be with tricycle gear. The airplane flies off the ground.
This, in turn, requires a large amount of wing incidence. Thus, the simple requirement for a long bomb
bay dominates the configuration design of the B-52.
The transports all have high wing layouts with fuselage mounted landing gear. This configuration is
driven by the requirement for loading and unloading heavy equipment without the need for special
ground support equipment.
The tanker/transports and the patrol airplane are military versions of civil jet transports.
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Tupolev TU-144
Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde
Boeing Supersonic Transport (SST)
Boeing AST-100
NASA SSX Jet IIT*
NASA SSX Jet III*
*These are conceptual designs that were never actually built.
Aspect ratios are in the range 1.65 to 4.0, yielding lift curve slopes that are very low (we will see this
relationship when we discus wings). Because of this the angle of attack during low speed approach is
high, making pilot visibility over the nose a major problem. The TU-144, the Concorde and the Boeing
proposed SST solved this problem by incorporating a rotating section of the forward fuselage (i.e., the
crew station) which rotates downward in landing configuration. Leading edge sweep angles vary from
42 (Vigilante) to 66 (B1B with wings swept).
Supersonic transports produce sonic boom, which is why most countries prohibit supersonic flight over
land. Military airplanes are exempt from this regulation as long as they stay in certain predefined
corridors.
Inlet placement on supersonic airplanes is another critical design consideration. Note that most have the
inlets far aft and under the wing. This results in favorable pressure interference and facilitates area
ruling.
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