M.A.C. Hasenau, S.A. Varga, A.E. Scholz, M. Hornung

A specialized field of aircraft development is the design of high-performance military fighter jets. This paper outlines the steps undertaken to enhance an existing aircraft design environment using a central data model as a single data source for the conceptual design of fighter aircraft. New design challenges were, among others, the approximation of the aerodynamic and geometrical effects of supersonic flight and increased manoeuvrability requirements, with the latter requiring the implementation of negative stability values during horizontal tail sizing. The introduced enhancements are specifically valid for fighter aircraft, such as e.g. the mission fuel mass and component mass estimations, and addressing low aspect ratio wings and their aerodynamic properties. The aerodynamic calculations were undertaken using handbook methods for the preliminary estimation of non-linear lift. The design process was validated with the re-design of the F-16A Block 15 fighter aircraft. With the implemented methods, the reference aircrafts wing loading and thrust-to-weight ratio are closely matched. As a result, the F-16A re-designs maximum take-off weight and wing reference area are nearly identical to the reference fighter aircraft. This applies to the mass breakdown and geometrical dimensions as well. The implemented fighter aircraft design process therefore proved to lead to reasonable results.

Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2021

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V., Bonn, 2021

Conference Paper

englisch

21,0 x 29,7 cm, 16 Seiten

urn:nbn:de:101:1-2021100811300643874522

10.25967/550024

aircraft design, fighter aircraft, panel codes, non-linear aerodynamics

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Hasenau, M.A.C.; Varga, S.A.; et al. (2021): Enhancement of an Aircraft Design Environment for the Design of Fighter Aircraft. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V.. (Text). https://doi.org/10.25967/550024. urn:nbn:de:101:1-2021100811300643874522.

08.10.2021