EMEC 368 Introduction to Aerospace
Course Project
Design and Performance Analysis of the MSU SAE AERO Design
Contest Airplane
Background
Two Senior Capstone teams are working on an aircraft design to enter into the SAE Aero Design
West in Van Nuys, CA on April 12-14, 2013.
Details may be found at:
http://students.sae.org/competitions/aerodesign/west/
A basic design has been completed and we will analyze this aircraft for its performance per the
topics we have covered in this course.
The Tasks for the project are identified below.
Task 1 Atmospheric Conditions
This plane will be flown in Bozeman and in Van Nuys. You will need to consider the
atmosphere for the altitudes and range of temperatures expected in Bozeman and Van Nuys, CA
in April. This range will be needed for basic aerodynamic pressure calculations, engine
performance calculations, etc. You will need to do some interpolations, depending on what
parameter you are seeking, e.g. pressure, density, velocity, temperature, etc.
Task 2 Lift and Drag Calculations
You need to calculate the lift and drag characteristics for the aircraft. This includes
individual components such as wings, fuselage, cowling, empennage, parasitic drag due to
antennae, landing gear, attachments, etc. (This is primarily the subject of Chapter 5) You will
then need to combine the concepts for the total flight vehicle structure for overall lift and drag
characteristics (the subject of early Chapter 6). You should develop a Drag Polar for this flight
vehicle structure.
Note: Students tend to do OK with the lift calculations, but tend to underestimate drag. This is
because of detail regions such as component intersections, roughness, geometry assumptions,
etc. You can expect the current design to be bound between a modern glider and a WWI aircraft
for lift and drag.
Task 3 Power and Efficiency
Specifications will be provided for the engine and propeller. Some will be assumptions from the
design group. You will need to determine if these are reasonable, and if not, perform a range of
calculations. In particular, the propeller is a fixed pitch design and will not have an efficiency as
high as 0.9 as we have sometimes assumed in our example and homework problems.
Task 4 Performance
Over the range of atmospheric conditions expected for the MSU SAE Aero flight vehicle, you
should estimate a range of expected performance expected for the following:
Thrust required for level, unaccelerated Flight
Thrust available at maximum velocity
Power required for level, unaccelerated flight
Power available and maximum velocity
Altitude effects on power required and power available
The plane will be tested in Bozeman, but flown in Van Nuys. What differences in
performance do you expect?
Rate of Climb
Gliding Flight
Absolute and Service Ceilings
Time to Climb
Range and Endurance
Max
Over the flight conditions of the contest
Takeoff Performance
Landing Performance
An estimated V-n diagram
Task 5 Stability and Control
The motivation of this task is to determine how difficult this airplane will be to fly, and if it has
enough control authority for the intended flights.
Static Stability
Dynamic Stability (estimates)
Absolute Angle of Attack
Longitudinal Stability
Contribution of wing
Contribution of the tail
Elevator conditions on stability
Fixed
Free
Directional Static Stability
Lateral Static Stability
This project will NOT require a formal report. However, a hard copy
presentation will be turned in. This will include appendices with any
supporting assumptions (including validations) and calculations for your
results. The presentations will be given in 10 min. segments during the final
time for this course (2:00PM – 3:50PM, December 14, 2012).