02 Aircraft Characteristics

Aircraft Characteristics
Prepared by:
Dr. Vaibhav Sharma
General
• Any machine which finds its support in the atmosphere due to
reactions of the air is defined as an aircraft.
• It can be heavier or lighter than air and may be power or non-
power driven, for example, air ship, air balloon, airplane, helicopter,
etc.
• The land airplane is the most practical type of machine to navigate
in the air and thousands of them are in daily use.
• They are designed to takeoff and land on runways with much
steeper angles than the helicopters.
Types of Aircrafts
Airship Air balloon

(Power driven) (Non-power driven)
Airplane Helicopter
(Power driven) (Power driven)
Float plane
• Airplanes can also be designed to operate on water.
• A float plane has long pontoon floats on which it rests when it is on
water.
• Sometimes these machines are constructed as amphibians which
means that they have wheels as well as floats. This has been
accomplished by arranging the wheels inside the floats.
Airplane Component Parts
Engine
• To provide a force for propelling the aircraft
through the air.
• An Aircraft can be classified according to their
propulsion as follows:
– Piston Engine
– Turbo jet
– Turbo fan or turbo prop
– Rocket
Piston Engine
• Powered by gasoline fed
reciprocating engine and is driven
by propeller.
• These conventional aircrafts are
suitable to operate at low
altitudes and moderate speeds.
• They also encounter cooling
problem at high forward speeds
and at high altitudes.
Turbo jet
• Its working principle is very similar to the behavior of an inflated balloon when it
is allowed to deflate.
• To start the machine, first, the compressor is rotated with a motor. As the
compressor gains its rated speed, it sucks in air through the air intake and
compress it in compressing chamber.
• The air is ignited here by a fuel like kerosene oil. The expanding air passes through
the fan like blades of the turbine.
• The compressor rotates at the same speed as the turbine because the two are
fastened solidly to one shaft. The hot gases, with the remaining energy escape
through the tail pipe which becomes smaller in diameter at the exit end, having
high velocity.
• Thus attaining forward thrust
Turbo Fan or Turbo Prop
Ram jet
• It is an Engine with no moving parts and must be operated at
comparatively higher speed if it has to function at all.
• A spark plug is used for starting only.
• The heated air expands and rushes out of the exhaust nozzle at very
high velocity creating jet thrust.
Rocket Engine
• All the engines described previously
have definite limitation i.e. they
depend on oxygen present in
atmosphere.
• The rocket Engine carries its own
supply of oxygen placing it in the
category of non-atmospheric
engines.
• Amongst all the engines, the rocket
engine has the highest specific fuel
consumption (the amount of fuel
consumed by a vehicle for each unit
of power output).
Advantages of Jet Engines over Conventional
Engines
• Freedom from vibrations.
• Simplicity of control: The power produced is applied in the best possible way, that is,
directly. No transmission or conversion mechanism is required. Thereby reducing the
energy losses.
• No radiators or other cooling surfaces are required which will add to weight and drag
on the jet units.
• Negligible air is required for cooling of engines.
• No spark plugs are required for operation. Once the combustion is established, it is
self propelling.
• No carburetors and hence no mixture control is required.
• Noiseless operation: This means less fatigue to the pilot and thus less cabin insulation
to dampen the noise.
• Decreased fire hazards.
• Lower specific weight.
• Less consumption of lubricated oil.
Propeller
• This is provided in the conventional piston engine aircrafts as well
as in turbo prop engines.
• When engine and propeller are in front, the machine is describes as
a tractor type.
• Sometimes, but not very often, the engine and airscrew are behind
the wing and this is known as a pusher installation.
• The propeller usually has two or more blades which are driven
round in a circular path. The blades deflect air backwards with an
acceleration and thus impart forward thrust to the airplane.
Fuselage
• It forms the main body of the aircraft and
provides for the power plant, fuel, cockpit,
passengers, cargo etc.
Wings
• To support the machine in the air when the engine has given it the
necessary forward speed.
• Lift and drag on flat plate.
• Lift-drag ratio will depend on angle of incidence and the aspect
ratio (length/breadth) of the plane.
• When aspect ratio increases above 10, it does not have much
influence on the lift-drag ratio.
Three controls
Three controls continued…
Size of Aircraft
• Wing span
• Fuselage length
• Height
• Distance between main gears (gear tread)
• Wheel base
• Tail width
Technical terms
Turning movement of Aircraft- Minimum Turning Radius
• In order to decide the radius of taxiways, the position of aircrafts in

loading aprons and hangars and to establish the path of the
movement of aircraft, it is very necessary to study the geometry of the
turning movement of aircraft.
• To determine the minimum turning radius, a line is drawn through the
axis of the nose gear when it is at its maximum angle of rotation. The
point, where this line intersects another line drawn through the axis of
the two main gears, is called the centre of rotation.
• The distance of farther wing tip from the centre of rotation represents
the minimum turning radius.
• To keep the tire-wear of the main gears within reasonable limits, the
maximum angle of rotation of nose gear has been limited by the
manufacturers.
Turning movement of Aircraft- Minimum Circling Radius
• A certain minimum radius in space is required for the aircraft to take

smooth turn. It is known as the minimum circling radius and it
depends upon the type of aircraft, air traffic volume and weather
conditions.
• The knowledge of minimum circling radius helps in separating two
nearby airports by an adequate distance so that the aircrafts
landing simultaneously on them do not interfere with each other.
• If it is not possible to provide such distance, the timings of landing
and takeoff of aircrafts in each airport will have to be suitably
adjusted. This aspect will reduce the capacity of each airport.
Minimum circle radius
No. Type of aircraft
(km)
1 Small general aviation aircrafts under VFR (visual flight rules) conditions 1.60
2 Bigger aircrafts, say two piston engine under VFR conditions 3.20
3 Piston engine aircrafts under IFR (instrument flight rules) conditions 13.00
4 Jet engine aircrafts under IFR conditions 80.00
Speed of Aircraft
• Speed of an aircraft can be defined in two ways viz. cruising speed
or ground speed and air speed.
• Cruising speed is the speed of aircrafts with respect to the ground
when the aircraft is flying in air at its maximum speed.
• Air speed is the speed of aircraft relative to the wing. Thus, if, the
aircraft is flying at a speed of 500 kph and there is a head wind of 50
kph, air speed will be 450 kph.
Other Aircraft characteristics
• Aircraft capacity
• Weight of aircraft and wheel configuration
• Jet blast
• Fuel spillage
• Noise

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Aircraft Characteristics

Airship Air balloon

• In order to decide the radius of taxiways, the position of aircrafts in

• A certain minimum radius in space is required for the aircraft to take

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