Chapter 3.

Flight mechanics

3.1 During steady, level flight, thrust needed is equal to the thrust available. Explain
what are meant by these two concepts and when they might not be equal. Explain also
the main physical parameters which they depend upon.

3.2 What is the so-called minimum control speed on ground and during airborne
during take-off? What is meant by “flare” during landing?

3.3 There is a bottle-neck design parameter for each component during some stages of
a flight. For engine, it could be the huge thrust needed during take-off. What are the
main design parameters for the wing?

3.4 Why is the condition of highest lift-to-drag ratio not exactly the one used to obtain
the longest flight range?

3.5 An aircraft flying at M=0.8 has a cruise height of 31,000 ft, a weight of 30,000 kg
and effective total wing area of 90 m2. The drag polar is approximated as CD=
0.015+0.08CL2. Find the thrust needed for a steady flight at this speed. [23311 N]

3.6 For the aircraft described in the previous question, find the slowest possible speed
if the lift coefficient at stall is 1.8. Find the thrust needed and also the fastest speed the
aircraft can fly at this thrust. [44786 N, 376.7m/s]
Determine the Mach number and comment on whether this prediction is definitely
correct. [1.25, no]

3.7 Again for the same airplane in 3.5, what is the Mach number when the thrust per
unit weight is the lowest? [0.6123]

3.8 If sfc is assumed to be constant for the same airplane in 3.5, what is cruise speed
that will give the longest range when flying at a constant height? Should this speed be
constant? [172 m/s, not fixed]

3.9 When flying at constant speed at 31,000 ft, the airplane of 3.5 has a fixed sfc=0.5
kg/h/kg regardless of speed. The weight at the start of the cruise is 30,000 kg, and the
weight at the end of cruise is half of this. What is the best range that can be achieved
if the flight is conducted at a fixed speed? What is that speed? [12633km, 208.6m/s]

3.10 During take-off, the plane of 3.5 uses a single-slotted Fowler flap that gives a lift
coefficient of 1.86 during the ground-roll. The effective aircraft wing area is 95 m2.
The engine thrust may be approximated as F  FV  0 1  V /V1  where FV=0=12500 kg
and V1=400 m/s. Estimate the ground roll distance to the lift-off point, SLO, by
assuming that the lift-off velocity is 1.1 times the velocity at which the lift equals
weight before aircraft rotation. [441 m]

What would be the take-off ground-roll distance for an airport situated at 3 km above
the sea-level? Assume that thrust is proportional to the ambient density. [812 m]

3.11 The range of flight under the conditions of constant cruise height and constant
flight speed is estimated as follows,

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 CL*V  1 W0 W 
S  tan  tan 1 end*  Eq. (1)
CD 0  sfc   WV*
WV 
where
WV*  12 V 2CL* Aw Eq. (2)
*
is a reference weight, C is the lift coefficient to achieve minimum drag-to-lift
L

coefficient with the simple drag polar model of

 
CD  CD 0  KCL2  CD 0 1   CL /CL*  , CL*  CD 0 /K .
2
Eq. (3)
(a) Estimate the range S for a passenger aircraft when 135,000 kg of fuel is consumed
with the take-off mass of 350,000 kg and other cruise parameters given below:
sfc=0.70 kg/hr/kg, CD  0.015  0.08CL2 , speed 255 m/s, wing area 520 m2, cruise
height 33,000 ft, where   0.41 kg/m3 , T  223 K . Hint: beware of units consistency.
[9082.8 km]

(b) The range estimation equation given above, Eq. (1), is derived from the integration
of
VdW / W
ds  Eq. (4)
  sfc  CD /CL
by assuming a constant value of sfc during the flight, which surely involves
engineering approximation. Examine the following five variables and pick two that
are most relevant to sfc:
(i) cruise height h, (ii) the wing incidence angle ,
(iii) Reynolds number Re, (iv) flight Mach number M,
(v) engine rotational speed N (or throttle).
[h, M, N]

3.12 During the constant-height, constant-speed cruise, flight range is estimated by

the following formula,
CL*V  1 W0 W 
S  tan  tan 1 end* 
CD 0  sfc   WV*
WV 
where WV*  12 V 2CL* Aw is a reference weight, CL*  CD 0 /K is derived from the
parabolic drag polar of CD=CD0+KCL2, with CD0=0.015 and K=0.08, and Aw is the
aircraft wing area. Now, a large aircraft with Aw=500 m2, cruises at a speed of 927
km/hr at a height where air density is 0.38 kg/m3. A constant sfc=0.64 kg/hr/kg may
be used for estimation purpose.

(a) How much fuel does the plane need to consume to cover a distance of 12,000 km
if its take-off weight is 360,000 kg? Hint: beware of dimension consistency in
calculation. [158915 kg]
(b) During the course of flight, how does the incidence angle change and why? [↓]
(c) Do you think the constant-sfc assumption is accurate for such flight? Why? [no]

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