FACULTY

APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES

DEPARTMENT

AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING

LEVEL OF STUDIES

UNDERGRADUATE

MODULE CODE

AE4110

SEMESTER OF STUDIES

^7th

COURSE TITLE

 AIRCRAFT DESIGN PRINCIPLES

INDEPENDENT TEACHING ACTIVITIES

TEACHING HOURS PER WEEK

CREDIT UNITS

Lectures, Practice, Laboratory

6

7

COURSE TYPE

Specialty course

PRE-REQUIRED COURSES:

TEACHING AND EXAMINATION LANGUAGE

GREEK

THE COURSE IS OFFERED TO ERASMUS STUDETNS 

 COURSE WEBSITE (URL)

http://eclass.gunet.gr/courses/LABGU268/

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing the course, students should be able to:
• Describe the basic design principles of the aircraft structural elements.
• Calculate the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft flight and the engine thermodynamic charactersistics.
• Select the appropriate components and component assemblies according to  the aircraft design principles.   

General Skills

Autonomous work

Group work

Aircraft design

Unit 1: Forces acting on aircraft

Aircraft definition. Forces of Inertia. Aerodynamic forces.  Diagram V-n. Compression forces. Engine forces. External load forces. Ground forces. Landing forces. Tyre loads and sizes. Wheel acceleration forces. Side forces.

Unit 2: Aircraft Construction Materials

Metallic materials. Ferrous metallic materials. Classification. Steel and steel alloy characteristics. Non ferrous aircraft metals. Aluminum and aluminum alloys. Magnesium and Magnesium alloys. Titanium and titanium alloys. Copper and copper alloys. Non metallic aircraft materials. Wood. Plastics. Transparent plastics. Reinforced plastics. Sandwitch type constructions. Rubbers. Composite materials. Fibre composite materials. Multiple layer composite materials.  Granular composite materials. Applications of thread composite materials.

Unit 3: Aircraft classification

Subsonic – Supersonic aircraft. Lo- wing, Mid-wing and High-wind aircraft. High-wing aircraft. Mid-wing aircraft. Low-wing aircraft.  Propeller driven – Turbopropepeller – Turbin – Piston engine  aircraft. Turboprop aircraft. Turbing engine aircraft.   The effect of suspension position on aircraft weight.  Common runway aircraft  – STOL – VTOL. Common runway aircraft. Short-Take-off -and- Landing aircraft.  Vertical-take-off-and-landing aircraft.  Short take off and Vertical landing aircraft. Fixed wing aircraft – Movable wing aircraft.  Ground plane aircraft – Sea plane aircraft -  Amphibian aircraft

Unit 4: Aircraft Fuselage

Main aircraft assemblies. Non structural approach of the fulselage.  The purpose of the fuselage. Fuselage of passenger aircraft. Fuselage of military aircraft. Payload. Fuselage geometry. Area rule. System installation. Fuselage Structure. Aircraft construction principles. Truss structure.  Monocoque shell structure. Semi-monocoque shell structure.  Material and Loads of the Semi-monocoque structure. Fuselage of unmanned  aircraft.  Categories and missions of unmanned aircraft. Advantages and drawbacks of unmanned aircraft. Construction materials of unmanned aircraft. Unmanned aircraft geometry. Fuselage structure. Aircraft fuselage per category. Airliners. Medium and large airliners.  Fighter aircraft. Fuselage assembly.

Unit 5: Aircraft wing

Wing construction principles. Subsonic airliner wing. Single spar wing. Multi spar wing. Fighter aircraft wing. Longitudinal elements. Latteral elements. Box type wing. Monocoque structure. Wing internal configuration. Biblanes.

Unit 6: Vertical and horizontal tail plane design

Αerodymaic approach. Empennage configuration. Empennage position. Stability and control in case of stalling. Recovery from spin.  Unusual aircraft configurations. Empennage structure. Verical stabilizer. Horizontal stabilizer. Ventral fins. 

Unit 7: Nacelles and engine cowlings

Power plant position. Reciprocating engine aircraft. Turbine engine aircraft. Turbopropeller aircraft. Effect of engine position on aircraft engine characteristics. Nacelle structure. Cowlings. Aerodynamic cowlings. Diaphragms. Nacelle aerodynamics. 

Unit 8: Flight control surfaces design

Conventional flight control surfaces on trailing edge. Primary flight control surfaces. Secondary control surfaces. Auxiliary control surfaces.  Flats. Airbrakes. Spoilers. Mixed control surfaces. Elevons.  Trailing edge flaperons. Tailerons. Ruddervators.  Front and rear all-moving control surfaces. Rear all-moving control surfaces. Front  control surfaces  (Canards). Rudder balancing. Aerodynamic balancing. Mass balancing. Rebalancing methods. Reduction of effectiveness and rudder reversal. Special aerodynamic devices.

Unit 9: Landing Gear system design

Types of Landign Gear. Landing retard systems. Landing system drag. Main Landing gear systems. Shock absorvers.   Retraction and Extension system.  Landing gear indication and warning system.  Steering systems. Steering system principles of operation. Yaw dampers. 

Unit 10: Aircraft weight and balancing

Aircraft center of gravity. Effect of center of gravity position on the aircraft flight characteristics. Weight definitions. Weight limitations and balancing. Methods of determining the aircraft center of gravity. Center of gravity calculation.  Diagrams determining the center of gravity.  Tables determining the aircraft center of gravity.   Weight displacement and change. Determination of weight and center of gravity. Balancing and rebalancing.

Unit 11: Aircraft horizontalization, allignment and adjustment

Horizontalization. Alignment. Dihedral angle alignment checks. Angle of incidence alignment checks.  Wing twist alignment checks.  Wing incidence check on a biplane.  Verticality check of the vertical stabilizer of the empennage.  Check of vertical stabilizer angle and fuselage level of symmetry.   Engine alignment check. Aircraft symmetry check.  Adjustment.  Flight control system adjustment principles.   Rudder adjustment. Adjustment of elevators.   Adjustment of ailerons.

Unit 12: Helicopters

History of helicopters. Helicopter operation principles.  Helicopter configuration. Helicopter flight control methods.  Helicopter basic Aerodynamics. Basic concepts.  Rotor wing airfoil.  Helicopter flight.  Wing lift asymmetry.  Vertical self-rotation.  Non vertical self-rotation. Ground effect.  Helicopter structure. Fuselage. Other structural assemblies.  Power plant.  Blade rootor systems. Intake.  Articulated rotor system.  Semi-rigid rotor system.  Rigid Rotor system.   Tail rotor. Main rotor blades. Structure and construction materials of structural elements. Confifuration of main elements in the blade structure.   Blade alignment.  Compensation blades.  Tail rotor blades.  Basic helicopter systems.  Landing gear system. Fuel system. Ice and rain protection system. Motion transmission system.  Portable folding helicopters. 

1^st Lab Activity: Aircraft type determination

2^nd Lab Activity: Calculation of aircraft lift

3^rd Lab Activity: Calculation of aircraft drag 

4^th Lab Activity: Study of aircraft static stability

5^th Lab Activity: Study of aircraft dynamic stability

6^th Lab Activity: Calculation of aircraft weights

7^th Lab Activity: Calculation of aircraft range

Calculation of aircraft autonomy

9^th Lab Activity: Simulation of aircraft test flights

10^th Lab Activity: Estimations of aircraft manufacturing cost.

TEACHING METHOD

Face to face, in the classroom

USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Support of learning procedure through the use of e-class platform

TEACHING ORGANIZATION

STUDENT EVALUATION

Ι. Final written examination  (60%) including :

- Multiple choice questions 

- Problem solving questions focusing on aircraft design

- Comparative evaluation of theoretical elements

ΙΙ. Presentation of group assignment  (40%)

1. Daniel P. Raymer, “Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach”, AIAA Education series, 1999
2.   Jan Roskam, “Airpplane Design” Part Ι - VIII, Roskam Aviation and Engineering Corporation, 1986