AER 615 Aircraft Performance

Outline of Course:

Introduction

Takeoff

Landing

Range & Endurance

Cruise Performance

Elements of Aircraft Control & Navigation

High-Speed Aircraft
Boeing Sonic Cruiser (Mach 0.98 at cruise),
cancelled Dec. 2002; marginally shorter trip
times did not compensate for poorer fuel economy
(hence, higher passenger ticket prices would have
been required, viz. Concorde)
Flight envelope for fixed- and rotary-winged flight vehicles using differing means for their propulsion. Quantitatively, to give some
scale to the above diagram, the upper flight Mach number for turboshaft powered helicopters in forward level flight is around 0.4,
piston engine propellered airplanes in steady level flight is around 0.6, for turboprop airplanes around 0.7, for high-bypass turbofan
powered airplanes around 0.9, low-bypass turbofan and turbojet powered airplanes around 3.0, for ramjet powered aircraft around 5.0,
for scramjet powered aircraft around 10.0, and for non-airbreathing chemical rocket powered vehicles, up to and beyond orbital flight
Mach numbers (20.0 and higher). Due to aerodynamic structural loading and aeroheating, one needs to go higher in altitude as one
goes faster (conditions less severe at lower air density). Of course, on the other hand in going very high in altitude, one needs
sufficient air intake if one is using air-breathing engines (combustion requirement), in addition to needing sufficient air density for
aerodynamic lift at a given airspeed. Graph reprinted with permission of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
A bow shock wave exists for free-stream
Mach numbers above 1.0
Wing sweep to reduce wave drag (pressure drag due to
compression wave presence)
Swing-wing to modify lift & drag at different flight Mach numbers
Area rule, applied to slimming or necking down a portion of
the aft fuselage, relative to the amount of wing volume
outboard from the fuselage location, to reduce wave drag
Base drag coeff. referenced to max. body cross-sectional area
D =(1/2) DV2A Cd = 0.7 p Ma2 A Cd
Lift-to-drag as an important issue
Sonic boom as an important issue
Breguet range equation for jet aircraft:

1 V CL Wini
R n( )
g TSFC C D W fin

aMaC L
TSFC C D
Bell X-1, liquid-rocket powered; first level
supersonic fixed-wing aircraft flight, 1947
North American YF-100 Super Sabre prototype,
employing swept wing to lower drag; first level
supersonic jet flight, 1953, reaching Mach 1.1 using
air-breathing turbojet engine
First supersonic bomber, Convair B-58A Hustler,
reached Mach 2 in1957; note the area rule being
applied as one moves down the fuselage, to minimize
supersonic wave drag
First Russian supersonic bomber,
Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder, circa 1961
North American XB-70A Valkyrie supersonic bomber, 1965;
only 2 prototypes were built; Mach 3 capability
XB-70A, circa 1968
 Concorde

Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 turbojet

(powered the Concorde)
 Circa 1972

Concorde cruised at Mach 2.04 (1350 mph) for best

fuel economy (supercruise, i.e., without use of afterburner;
cruise altitude ranged from 45000 to 60000 ft, with
design altitude of 56000 ft)
 Design Issues
In order to minimize the wave drag encountered in
transonic/supersonic flight, the curvature of the supersonic
aircrafts airframe should be kept to a minimum, which implies
much higher fineness ratios (length-to-width), hence long &
skinny. This is why high-speed aircraft have long pointed
noses and tails, and cockpit canopies that are flush to the
fuselage line.

Aerodynamic heating of the aircrafts external structure

becomes an issue above a flight Mach number of around 2.5,
and leads to flying at higher altitudes (lower air densities and
temperatures) to avoid overheating.

The sonic boom emanating from a supersonic aircrafts

airframe restricts the paths that the aircraft is allowed to fly,
when over populated ground and below the noise threshold
altitude for the airplane. Another reason to fly higher.
Final flight of Concorde was in 2003
Schematic diagram of an engine intake for the Arospatiale/British
Aircraft Corporation Concorde airliner, with the internal variable
geometry (doors, valves, etc.) set up for supersonic-cruise flight
Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport; first
prototype flew in 1968, and entered
in service in varying roles from 1975 to 1985;
Mach 2 capability, but less fuel efficient than
the Concorde; 16 were built
Boeing 2707 (SST; supersonic transport);
proposed but never built (1971 cancellation)
Boeing 2707-300 (final fixed-wing variant;
earlier proposals had a swing-wing)
 J58

SR-71

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Mach 3.3

at 80000 ft capability (limited in part by
maximum allowable aerodynamic heating
of airframe); first flight 1964
SR-71 engines:
P&W J58 ,
turboramjet
Tupolev Tu-444 supersonic business jet, proposed
Supersonic Aerospace Intl. Quiet Supersonic Transport
(QSST) business jet, proposed
HyperMach Aerospace SonicStar
supersonic business jet (Mach 4),
proposed
Anticipated flight envelope, altitude vs. flight Mach number, for
commercial supersonic and hypersonic flight vehicle operations. Sonic
boom limits for sound pressure waves reaching the ground are also
indicated. Graph from a McDonnell Douglas study, circa 1970s.
Anticipated flight envelope, altitude vs. flight Mach number, for commercial supersonic
and hypersonic flight vehicle operations. The smaller closed envelope is for the Falcon
HTV-3X (Blackswift) hypersonic technology demonstrator under study by Lockheed
Martin and DARPA. The larger unclosed envelope (corridor), below the SpaceShuttles
ascent/descent flight performance limits, is for future hypersonic vehicles with
capabilities superseding those of the TBCC-powered HTV-3X. The right diagram is an
artists conception of a possible HTV-3 variant. Courtesy of DARPA.
Airbus A2, hydrogen-fuelled
hypersonic airliner, proposed;
Mach 8 cruise; using Scimitar
turbine-based combined-cycle
(TBCC) engine, proposed
NASA X-30 for National Aerospaceplane (NASP) program;
program circa 1980s, eventually cancelled in 1994
Powered by two Aerojet
Strutjet RBCC engines
X-30 objectives, for NASP development
NASA X-43 Hyper-X,
using scramjet engine,
for Mach 7 to 10 cruise;
subscale prototype,
unmanned
Artist concept of DARPAs Aurora recon a/c,
Mach 5 cruise, using scramjet engine
 Circa 1985

SSTO = single
stage to orbit

HOTOL = horiz.
takeoff/landing
Skylon SSTO flight vehicle, on the tarmac
Synergic airbreathing rocket-based (SABRE) combined-cycle engine for
Skylon SSTO vehicle, using cooled-air cycle engine (CACE) approach
Skylon vehicle in orbit, preparing to deploy satellite from payload bay into orbit