NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

School Of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

AY 2014-2015








E3.6AE FLIGHT DETERMINATION OF AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE





AIRCRAFT HANGAR
(AEROSPACE ENGINEERING DIVISION)


N3.2-B4-01










Name of Student: ________________________________ Lab Sub-Group: _________________

Matric No.: ________________________________ Date: _________________

Name of Supervisor: _________________________________________________________________

Grade: _____________________


NOTE: This title page should be attached to all required material for this experiment before
submission.
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.1 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
E3.6A FLIGHT DETERMINATION OF AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE

SUMMARY

I) Area of Study
Flight performance, flight test

II) Learning Objectives
By completing this project, students will be able to learn about

a. Theoretical Models, Principles and Concepts
Basics of flight test techniques
Steady level flight performance
Aircraft aerodynamics
Flight simulation

b. Experimental Techniques
Extraction of aircraft drag polar and prediction of flight performance through
simulated flight test

c. Instrumentation
Flight simulator with generic instrument panel and data recording capability
Flight simulator operating software
Microsoft Excel for analysis

d. Data Analysis
Lift and drag coefficients
Drag polar
Some steady level flight performance measures
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.2 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
E3. 6A FLIGHT DETERMINATION OF AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE

1 INTRODUCTION
An aircraft is a multi-discipline engineering product that is designed and developed to meet
certain performance requirements based on the mission objectives. However, since
engineering is not really exact by nature and compromises have to be taken along the way
in the development phase, the end product needs to be validated against the specified
performance requirements. The validation of the flight performance aspects of an aircraft is
known as flight testing.
The primary purpose of the flight testing is to determine if the performance characteristics
of the aircraft is sufficient to safely accomplish its intended mission. Other purposes include
the validation of the aerodynamic properties, power plant characteristics or systems data,
and investigation into other related fields.
In this experiment, some principles of flight testing are used to extract some aerodynamic
properties and to predict performance characteristics of an airplane through simulated
airplane flights.

2 OBJECTIVES
This experiment is intended to enhance the understanding of the students to the concept
of aircraft performance that is given in AE3002 Flight Mechanics course. Specifically,
this experiment aims to:
enhance understanding of fundamental forces in flight and their effects on flight
performance,
expose the students to the practical manner relevant to the determination of aircraft
performance through flight test,
provide knowledge to the students about exploring basic airplane aerodynamic
characteristics through certain flight maneuvers,
gain better familiarity with basic flight instruments in the cockpit and their
functionalities.

3. THEORY
3.1 Steady Straight Level Flight
For aircraft flying in the atmosphere, there are basically four forces of flight: lift (L), drag
(D), thrust (T), and weight (W), as illustrated in Fig. 1. Lift and drag are aerodynamic type
of forces that are present due to the relative motion of the aircraft with respect to the air.
Thrust is produced by the propulsion system to push the aircraft forward and to overcome
the drag. Weight is present due to gravity, which is a natural force pulling the aircraft
downward. Flight characteristics of an aircraft are dependent on the interaction of these four
forces.

School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU

Figure 1. The four forces of flight

The simplest type of flight is the so-called steady straight level flight, where the aircraft
flies a straight-line trajectory with constant airspeed and altitude and its wings are in level
position. In this case (see Fig. 2):
D T
T
= cos (1)
W T L
T
= + sin (2)
where the engine thrust angle
T
indicates the angle the thrust makes with respect to the
flight direction.

Figure 2. Force equilibrium in steady straight level flight

For conventional aircraft performing conventional flight,
T
is often small, and thus the
following approximate relations can be used (see Fig. 3):
D T = (3)
W L = (4)
These approximations are used throughout this experiment. Eq. 3 suggests that the thrust
required to maintain the steady straight level flight is equivalent to the drag experienced by
the aircraft. Similarly, in steady straight level flight, the lift needed is the same as the
weight of the aircraft at the particular instant.
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU

Figure 3. Assumed force equilibrium in steady straight level flight

Thrust Required
The thrust required (
R
T ) to maintain steady straight level flight is defined as the thrust
required times the steady-state airspeed (

V ), and by Eq. 3, this can be expressed as:
D T
R
= (5)
In general, the variation of the thrust required with airspeed and altitude is not linear,
because D is both a function of air density (

), which varies with altitude, and airspeed,
as follows:
D
SC V D
2
2
1

= (6)
where S is the aircrafts wing planform area and
D
C is the aircrafts drag coefficient.
The relationship between
R
T and

V at a given altitude is usually called the thrust required

curve.

Maximum Airspeed
In general, for steady straight level flight at specific altitude in the relatively high speed
range of the aircraft, the drag increases as the airspeed increases. From Eq. 3, this implies
that the thrust required to maintain the steady straight level flight also increases. If the
airspeed is further increased, it will reach a point where the thrust required is the maximum
the propulsion of the aircraft can generate. In that situation, the airspeed for steady straight
level flight cannot be increased further
When the aircraft is in steady straight level flight with maximum propulsion thrust at a
specific altitude, then the steady airspeed at which the aircraft flies is called the maximum
airspeed for that altitude.

Coefficient of Lift
Like drag, lift (L) is also a function of air density, which varies with altitude, and airspeed,
as follows:
L
SC V L
2
2
1

= (7)
The coefficient of lift (
L
C ) during steady straight level flight can be calculated from Eq. 4,
which yields:

S V
W
C
L
2
2

=

(8)
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.5 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
It is clear from Eq. 8, that the coefficient of lift can be determined if other parameters such
as the instantaneous aircraft weight, wing area of the aircraft and air density at the flight
altitude are known.
3.2 Drag Polar
Drag polar is the plot of lift coefficient (
L
C ) vs. drag coefficient (
D
C ) at various angles of
attack. For a particular aircraft at specific configuration, the drag polar usually can be
approximated quite well using parabolic curve (see for example Fig. 4) with the following
D L
C C relation [1]:

2
0
L D D
C K C C + = (9)
where
R
A e
K

1
= (10)
In the above equations,
0
D
C is the parasite drag coefficient, e is Oswald efficiency, and
R
A
is the aspect ratio of the wing of the aircraft.

Figure 4. Drag polar for Cessna U3A [2]
For calculating the drag polar parameters, it is easier to use
D
C vs.
2
L
C plot, because in this
case the relationship is linear (see Fig. 4 as an example of such plot). Using
L
C and
D
C
information at various equilibrium conditions, and then use straight line approximation and
extrapolation, such plot can be used to find
0
D
C (intersection of the line with the vertical
axis) and e (through the slope of the line; = K slope).
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.6 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)

Figure 5. Plot of
D
C vs.
2
L
C for Cessna U3A [2]
Drag polar information is very useful since it can be used to estimate or predict various
aircraft performance characteristics.

4. EQUIPMENT
4.1 Equipment Technical Information
The equipment used for the experiment is the 6 Degree-of-Freedom (6 DOF) motion-base
flight simulator (Fig.6). The default aircraft simulated is a generic C-130 aircraft, which has
4 wing-mounted turboprop engines.


Figure 6. NTU Flight Simulator
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.7 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)

Among the main features of the flight simulator:
- 6 degree of freedom motion system (+/- 22
o
in roll, pitch, yaw; +/- 18 cm in heave and
+/- 25 cm surge and sway)
- Wide field of view 3-channel projection visual system (140
o
H 40
o
V)
- Generic 2-operator cockpit
- Customizable touch-screen instrument panels
- Multi-channel audio system
- Simulated GPS navigation
- Separate Instructor Operating Station (IOS)
- Communication system
- Online flight data recording system
Briefing on the operation of the flight simulator will be given during the time of the
experiment.

4.2 Experimental Setup
Only two people can be inside the cabin of the flight simulator when running the simulation
with the motion system on. A person at the IOS, who is in charge of starting/stopping data
recording, resetting the simulation, and configuring the flight scenario, must be in
communication at all time with the people inside the cabin. The flying of the simulated
airplane can be done by using the inside-the-cabin controller or the joystick outside the
cabin (in the IOS). For this experiment, the flying should be done from inside the cabin.
Inside-the-cabin view of the aircraft instruments and out-the-window scenery on the
projection screen can be replicated in real time on the LCD monitors in the IOS.
During the flight, various flight variables can be recorded with a refresh rate of 50 Hz. The
recorded data are in Comma Separated Variables (CSV) format, which can be retrieved for
further analysis using Microsoft Excel.

5. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
1. Take-off and climb
a) Set to full-thrust and flap at 60 degrees (recommended value for take-off). The
aircraft can start taking off at about 100 knots, keep the angle of attack within 30
degrees, and let the aircraft climb steadily by controlling the yoke.

b) Pull up the landing gear and put the flap up as soon as the plane taking.

c) Maintain steady climb and when the aircraft reaches the altitude of about 3000
feet, adjust the flight altitude by pushing and pulling the yoke to keep it at around
3000 feet.

2. Achieve steady level straight flight at different airspeeds
a) Reduce the thrust to a fraction of the full thrust, and then try to adjust the
pitch angle using the yoke to reach the steady flight speed. Note that the
airspeed can be changed by adjusting the thrust and pitch angle. Pull back the yoke
to slow down, and push forward to speed up (works only outside the stall region,
try to keep the angle of attack within 30 degrees). So the pilots challenge is to find
the right combination of throttle level and pitch angle to achieve steady flight.

School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.8 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
b) Increase/decrease the thrust level and try to achieve another straight-level
steady flight condition. In this experiment, a total of at least 9 different steady-
level conditions with airspeed ranges from 170 to 270 knots needs to be achieved to
get good results. Space the target airspeeds appropriately and try not to cramp them
around a particular value.

c) When adjusting the airspeed to achieve steady flight, concentrate on the altitude
indicator (keep it within 2900ft-3100ft) and the climb angle indicator (keep it at
around 0 without too much variation)

Note: the straight-level flight condition is not very easy to achieve. Adjust the yoke
patiently, try not to pull or push it too hard and give some time for the aircraft to react.
After a few trials, you will find some skills of controlling the pitch angle, sometimes
adjusting the thrust slightly will help to achieving the steady condition. At higher airspeeds,
it becomes even harder to keep the aircraft steady and level, be patient and try to get the
best situation.

3. Record maximum thrust
Try also to capture the maximum thrust value that you can get at 3000 ft. This is useful for
estimating maximum speed later. J ust put the thrust level at maximum for a few seconds
and try to fly straight.

4. Record the flight data
a) When the steady straight-level flight is achieved at the altitude of about 3000ft, the
pilot needs to communicate with the assistant at the IOS to start the data recording.
A recording length of about 30 seconds should be sufficient for each achieved
steady flight. A total of 9 or more data sets should be targeted for recording.

b) After all the testing and recording have been completed, the recorded data can be
found in the file testRecordData. Open it using Excel and extract the useful
variables: mass, thrust and true airspeed by deleting the columns containing other
variables.

c) Excel can be used to calculate the average values of the mass and thrust for each
steady straight-level flight condition. Since the data are recorded frame by frame,
try to use the frame number to separate the data recorded for each airspeed.

6. RESULTS
Use SI units in all your calculations. The following conversion factors should be helpful:
1 knot =0.514 m/s
1 MPH =0.447 m/s
1 ft =0.3048 m
Some useful data for C-130 aircraft (see Fig. 7):
- wing span: 40.4 m
- wing area: 162 m
2


School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.9 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)

Figure 7. Three view of C-130 aircraft
Submit the requested information or answers to the questions below.
a. For one flight condition (choose any one), show the detailed calculation steps on how
you obtain
L
C and
D
C . Show also the formula you use for the calculation. Then for all
flight conditions recorded, create a table (using Excel) containing the following
information:
- Mass
- True airspeed
- Thrust
-
L
C
-
2
L
C
-
D
C
Submit the table as part of your lab report.
b. Plot
D
C vs.
2
L
C . Determine the best straight line approximation for the plot (you can
use Excels trend line feature for this) and determine the parasite drag
0
D
C and the
Oswald efficiency factor e . Then plot
D
C vs.
L
C using the coefficients you calculated
from the straight trend line. This is the approximate drag polar of the aircraft.
c. Estimate the maximum airspeed of the aircraft from the experimental data that you have
obtained.

7. DISCUSSION
a. How will your
L
C and
D
C results be affected if you dont make the necessary
correction for the flight test condition?
b. Is your drag polar realistic? Comments on what may affect the accuracy of the results.
c. Theoretically, the maximum L/D ratio and the speed at which the maximum L/D ratio
should occur can be shown to be [1]:
K C D
L
D
0
4
1
max
=

(11)

School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.10 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
2
1
) / (
0
max
2

=
D
D L
C
K
S
W
v

(12)
How do the values of
max

D
L
and
max
) / ( D L
v that you obtain from the experiment with the
theoretical prediction given by Eqs. (11) and (12) compare? Comment on what may
affect the differences in your results and the theoretical values.

8. REFERENCES
[1] Anderson J . D., Aircraft Performance and Design,, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1999.
[2] Kimberlin_ R. D., Flight Testing of Fixed-Wing Aircraft, AIAA Education Series, 2003.






School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU
Restricted E3.6AE.11 Ver. 1 (Updated 26-Mar-2009)
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering


EXPERIMENT E3. 6A: FLIGHT DETERMINATION OF AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE


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