Lecture 1.

Aircraft Configuration Development Historical Survey

The first step that the designer should undertake in the development of a new aircraft configuration is
to do a historical survey of aircraft that have previously been produced in the same category. The
general categories that encompass the vast majority of aircraft that have flown or are currently flying
were presented previously and are repeated here:

Homebuilts
Single engine piston-propeller driven
Twin engine piston-propeller driven
Business jets
Regional turboprops
Jet Transports
Military trainers
Fighters
Military patrol, bombers and transports
Amphibious and float airplanes
Supersonic cruise airplanes

Janes All The Worlds Aircraft is an excellent reference source for such a historical survey. It has been
published annually since 1909.
In the text that follows, a number of airplanes in each of the above categories are listed and the
common and uncommon features of each are identified. Three views of the aircraft listed are shown in a
document that has already been distributed.
Homebuilts:
Homebuilt airplanes are airplanes that are usually built by one person at home in a garage or workshop.
They can be designed by the individual who will actually be the builder or can be built from kits. This
category also includes scaled down versions of some of the more popular WWII fighter aircraft.
Homebuilts do not require FAA certification, but the requirement that at least 50% of the airplane must
be built by the individual who will be the pilot is strictly enforced. Examples are:
Coates S.A. III Swalesong
Sequoia Model 300
Piel C.P. 1320
Turner T-40 C
Sizer Saphire
Isaacs Spitfire
Reed Falcon
Aerocar Coot Model B
Pottier P 110 TS
Piel C.P. Pinocchio
Piel C.P. 500

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Nine of the above twelve have a low wing. One is high wing, one is tandem wing and one is a biplane.
Only one uses wing bracing (the tandem wing), all others have cantilevered wings.
Wing planforms vary; six are rectangular (Hershey bar), three are moderately tapered and two are
elliptical. Only one has any significant quarter-chord sweep (the biplane). Wing aspect ratios vary from
5.5 to 7.0.
Nine have conventional tail configurations. One has a T-tail, one is a twin-boom with H-tail, and the
tandem wing has vertical tails on the tips of the aft wing.
A single engine is mounted to the front of the fuselage on eleven of the twelve. The Aerocar has a single
engine mounted to the top of the fuselage in a nacelle. The Aerocar is also the only amphibious airplane
in the group.
Six have tricycle gear and six are tail draggers.
Single Engine Piston-Propeller Driven Airplanes
This category includes general utility, also known as General Aviation airplanes, airplanes specifically
designed for aerobatic competition, and the land based and carrier based fighters and dive bombers of
WW II.
General Aviation aircraft are owned or rented by private pilots usually for the sole purpose of enjoying
flying as a hobby. Some aircraft in this category are also used for civilian pilot training. Seating capacity is
limited to two or three passengers. General Aviation aircraft require FAA certification and licensing,
must adhere to a strict maintenance schedule, and must be maintained by A&P licensed mechanics.
Examples are:
Zlin 43
Interceptor 400
Poschel P-300 Equator
Piper Tomahawk
Cessna Skylane RG
Cessna Stationair 8
Trago-Mills SAH-1
Valmet L-70 Multitrainer
Robin R 3140
Socata Tobago
Beechcraft Musketeer Super R
Piper PA-301T Turbo Saratoga
Nine of those listed are low wing and three are high wing. Five have a rectangular wing planform and
three have straight tapered planforms. Four of the planforms have an inboard rectangular section and a
moderately tapered outboard section. Such planforms attempt to approximate an elliptic shape in an
attempt to maximize the span efficiency. Four exhibit a wing glove. A wing glove is often used to
provide additional volume for fuel or for the main landing gear when it is retracted. Wing aspect ratios
vary from 5.75 to 8.0. The high wing configurations have zero to 1.75 of dihedral while low wing
configurations have from 3.5 to 8 of dihedral. All exhibit little or no quarter-chord sweep.

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Nine have conventional tails and three have T tails. All are tractors and eleven have the engine mounted
to the front of the aircraft while one (the Poschel P 300) has the prop located at the vertex of the T tail
(this is very unusual).
All have tricycle landing gear but only three have retractable gear.
Twin Engine Piston-Propeller driven airplanes.
Twin engine propeller driven airplanes are designed for longer range and higher payload capacity than
single engine airplanes. The longer range and higher payload drive the designs to twin engines either
because of the impractical size of the single engine (and propeller) that would be required or simply
because a single engine with the required horsepower is not available. Most of the modern airplanes in
this category are put to use by small companies whose business requires a lot of regional travel or by
small, short-hop airlines. They generally have a seating capacity of six to ten passengers. Examples are:
Partenavia P 68C Victor
Piaggio P 166-DL 3
Piper PA-31-350 Chieftain
Piper PA-44-180T Turbo Seminole
Piper Cheyenne III
Cessna Conquest II
Cessna Model T 303 Crusader
Cassna Model 402C
Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander
Beechcraft Duchess 76
Cessna Model 336 Skymaster
Beechcraft Duke A 60
Eight are low wing and four are high wing. Wing planform is rectangular or moderately tapered in all
cases. Five have an added wing glove. Aspect ratios and dihedral are all in the same range as their single
engine counterparts.
Eleven have engines mounted to the wings. Ten are tractor; one is a pusher and one a pusher/tractor
(the Skylane). Seven have conventional tail, three have a T tail, one has a cruciform tail and the Skylane
is a twin boom with H-tail. All have tricycle landing gear.

Business Jets
Business jets are used by large corporations for business travel. Many corporations have found that it is
more economical and a lot more convenient to own their own aircraft rather than travel via commercial
airlines. Some can carry up to 24 passengers for distances in excess of 4000 miles. Examples are:
Lockheed Jetstar
Gates Learjet 35A
Gulfstream III
Dassault-Breguet Mystere-Falcon 50

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Dassault Falcon 10A

Piaggio-Douglas PD-808 Vespa Jet
Cessna Citation
Gates Learjet Longhorn 55
Cessna Citation III
BAE HS 125 700
IAI 1124 Westwind
IAI 1125 Astra
Eleven are low wing and one is high wing. Aspect ratios vary from 5 to 9. All are propelled by turbofan
engines and the engines are mounted to the aft fuselage (a la Caravelle) in all cases. Since these aircraft
cruise at greater speed and altitude than propeller driven aircraft they generally exhibit swept wings.
Leading edge sweep angles vary from 5.5 to 35. Dihedral angles vary from zero (high wing) to 5 (low
wing).
Four have a T tail and the remainder have a cruciform tail configuration.
Regional turboprop airplanes
These aircraft are primarily in use by commercial airlines for regional (short-hop) travel. The routes are
too short to warrant climbing to higher cruise altitudes and cruise speeds are in the same range as the
twin piston-prop counterparts. Turboshaft engines are preferred for this type of aircraft because they
are lighter, more reliable and require less maintenance than piston engines. Some examples are:
Beechcraft B99 Airliner
Beechcraft 1900
Embraer EMB 110 P2 Bandeirante
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia
DeHavilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8
DeHavilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7
Airtech CN-235
SAAB 340
Fokker F-27 Friendship Mk 200
BAE Jetstream 31
BAE 748 Series 2B
Shorts 330
Seven of these are low wing and five are high wing. They all exhibit fairly high aspect ratios, between 7.5
and 12.0, but ten of the twelve are between 9 and 12. Wings are mostly uniform taper (one is
rectangular) with little or no sweep. Dihedral angle for the low wing versions is between 6.3 and 7.5,
and for the high wing versions between 2.7 and 4.
All have engines mounted to the wings. Four have T tails, five have conventional tails, two have
cruciform tails and one has an H tail. All have retractable tricycle landing gear.

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Civil Jet Transports

Civil jet transports are powered by high bypass turbofan engines. Typical cruise altitude is 35,000 ft.
Cruise speed is between M=0.7 and 0.8. They carry hundreds of passengers over thousands of miles.
Examples are:
Boeng 747-200B
Boeng 757-200
Boeng 767-200
Boeng 737-300
Lockheed L-1011- 500 Tristar
McDonnell Douglas MD 100
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
McDonnell Douglas MD 80
Airbus A 320- 200
Airbus A 300 B4
Fokker F28 Mk 4000 Fellowship
BAE 146 Series 200
Eleven of the twelve are low wing configurations. Wings exhibit moderate to high taper with aspect
ratios between 6.5 and 9.2. Leading edge sweep angles vary from 17 to 40, with most between 26 and
36. Dihedral angle for the low wing designs is from 3 to 6. The high wing (BAE 146) has 2.6 negative
dihedral (also called anhedral). Most of the wings incorporate a Yehudi, which is a straightening of the
trailing edge sweep near the root of the wing. The Yehudi has the sole purpose of providing additional
structure for attachment of the main landing gear.
Ten have two or four engines mounted to the wings. Two have engines mounted to the fuselage. Three
have a third engine mounted in the vertical tail or in the aft fuselage.
Three have T tails and the others have conventional tails.
Military Trainers
Military trainers are aircraft used to teach new pilots basic flying skills and simple aerobatics. They can
be piston-prop, turboprop or jet powered. All are two-place (trainer and trainee) with tandem cockpit
arrangements (except the T-46A which had side-by-side seating. The T46A never went into production,
but six prototypes were built for DT&E). Examples are:
Aerospatiale Epsilon
Embraer EMB 312 Tucano
Beechcraft T-34C
RFB Fantrainer 600
British Aerospace Hawk
Fairchild Republic T-46A
SIAI Marchetti S 211
Aeromacchi M.B. 339A
Dassault-Breguet Alpha Jet
Aero L-39 Albatros

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CASA C=101 Aviojet

PZL Mielec Iskra-BIS D
Four are turboprops and the rest are jets. The prop driven aircraft are all low wing with aspect ratios in
the 6 to 7 range. Dihedral angle is 2.5 to 6. Wings have moderate taper with little or no sweep. One of
the prop driven airplanes (the RFB Fantrainer) is a turbo shaft powered pusher that uses a ducted fan.
Four of the jets are high wing and the other four are low wing. Interestingly, the high wing jets all have
negative dihedral from -2.5 to -7. Only two have any appreciable leading edge sweep (18 and 29). All
but two of the jets have a single engine (the T-46A and the Alpha Jet have two engines).
Eight have conventional tails, two have cruciform tails, and one has a T tail and one has an H tail.
Fighters
Fighters are aircraft that are designed for air superiority (air-to-air combat) or ground attack (close air
support). They fall into three general categories; namely, air superiority fighters, attack aircraft and
multi-role fighters. Some are aircraft carrier compatible (Navy fighters). Air superiority fighters are
optimized for intercept and air-to-air combat, while attack aircraft are optimized for the support of
ground operations (e.g. the A-10, A-6 and A-7). Multi-role fighters can perform the air-to-air, air-toground, and other missions such as patrol. Examples are:
Grumman F-14A Tomcat
Grumman A-6E
General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon
General Dynamics F-16XL
Panavia Tornado IDS
Aeritalia/Aermacchi/Embraer AM-X
Dassault-Breguet Mirage III-E
FMA 1A 58A Pucara
Northrop F-20 Tigershark
McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle
Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II
SAAB JA 37 Viggen
Two of the above have variable geometry wings (the F-14 and the Tornado). Wings pivot to form a high
aspect ratio configuration for low speed efficiency and a low aspect ratio for high speed flight. The F-14
with wings extended has an aspect ratio of 7.25 and with wings swept has an aspect ratio of 2.56. The
Tornado is almost a carbon copy, (7.27 wings extended, 2.78 wings swept). Most supersonic fighters (F16, F-15, Viggen, F-20, Mirage) have low aspect ratios between 1.9 (Mirage) and 3.8 (F-20). High
transonic maneuver load factors and the desire to fly supersonic (thin wing sections) drive these designs
to low aspect ratio based on aerodynamic (area ruling) and structural considerations.
Attack aircraft can get away with higher aspect ratio wings (5 to 7) because without supersonic flight
requirement the airfoil sections used can be thicker to provide the necessary structural strength and a
higher aspect ratio is desirable to achieve better cruise and loiter efficiency.

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Fighters exhibit mid to low wing configurations and engine(s) integrated with the fuselage, which is
conducive to minimizing wave drag (i.e., better area ruling). Single vertical tail arrangements are
generally prevalent, although most have stabilators. Twin vertical tails (F-14, F-15, F-18 and F-22) are
sometimes required because a single vertical tail would be much too large, based upon physical size
constraints (hangar size, maintainability, etc.) than two smaller tails.
Military Patrol, Bomber and Transport Airplanes
These aircraft are designed with objectives similar to Jet Transports, i.e., to carry a large payload for long
range. Unlike the Jet Transport, however, bomber and patrol airplanes in this category are designed for
a round trip (return to their origin) and hence mission radius becomes the dominant design factor.
Examples of these are:
Boeing B-52H
BAE HS Nimrod MR
Lockheed YC-141B
Antonov AN-22 Antheus
Ilyushin IL-38
Ilyushin IL-76T
McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender
Lockheed C-130 Herculese
Lockheed C-5B Galaxy
Lockheed P-3C Orion
Grumman E2C Hawkeye
Boeing E-3A AWACS
Seven are high wing and five are low wing configurations. Seven are jets and five are turboprops. All jets
in this category have significant wing sweep (25 to 38) while the turboprops do not due to the lower
cruise speeds typical of propeller-driven airplanes. Five of the high wing airplanes have negative dihedral
(-2 to -5.3) and two have positive dihedral (1.4 and 2.0). All of the low wing airplanes have positive
dihedral between 3.5 and 6.2. All are conventional configurations. Seven have conventional tails and
three have T tails. The AN-22 has an H-tail. The E2C has an H-tail with additional vertical tail surfaces
located at roughly the midpoint of the horizontal stab. The additional vertical surfaces allow for
reduction in the size of the surfaces at the ends of the horizontal stab. Since this is a carrier based
airplane, height limitations, in addition to takeoff rotation and landing ground clearance, precluded
making the vertical surfaces any larger so an additional set of surfaces was added.
The B-52H is a long range bomber designed around a long bomb bay. This forced the high wing layout
and the tandem landing gear. The tandem landing gear does not allow for rotation during takeoff, and
hence takeoff distance is longer than it could be with tricycle gear. The airplane flies off the ground.
This, in turn, requires a large amount of wing incidence. Thus, the simple requirement for a long bomb
bay dominates the configuration design of the B-52.
The transports all have high wing layouts with fuselage mounted landing gear. This configuration is
driven by the requirement for loading and unloading heavy equipment without the need for special
ground support equipment.
The tanker/transports and the patrol airplane are military versions of civil jet transports.

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Amphibious and Flying Boat Airplanes

This category of airplane is designed to take off and land from water as well as from land. In some cases
an airplane that is primarily land-based can be fitted with a set of floats to operate from water with
reduced useful load. Airplanes designed for primary operation off water are dominated by the
requirement for a large hydrodynamically shaped hull. Examples are:
SIAI-Marchetti S 700 Cormorano
Canadair CL-215
Dornier Seastar
Beriev M-12 Tchaika
Shin Meiwa US-1
Martin YP6M-1 Seamaster
Saunders ROE SR-45 Princess
Blohm & Voss BV 222
Martin PBM-3 Mariner
Grumman J4F-1 Widgeon
Boeng 314-A Clipper
Short Sandringham
All are high wing configurations, for obvious reasons. All but one is multi-engine with engines mounted
to the wings. The one single engine example (the Seastar) has its engine mounted in a nacelle supported
by struts high above the fuselage. One is a jet (the Seamaster, which never went into production) and all
others are piston-prop or turboprop driven. Note that the jet has intakes above the wing and aft of the
leading edge. This minimizes the probability that water will be ingested. Two exhibit a gull wing
configuration (the M-12 and the PBM-3), conceivably to achieve additional engine and propeller-towater clearance. The high thrust line exhibited by these aircraft has some impact upon their flying
quality; that is, a change in pitching moment when the throttle setting is changed. Only one has a
conventional tail. Three have H tails, six have cruciform tails and two have T tails.
Note that nine are fitted with outriggers attached to the wing or to the fuselage. The outriggers retract
to form the wing tip in one case (the SR-45). Outriggers provide additional lateral stabilization during
takeoff and landing from water.
Supersonic Cruise Airplanes
The requirement for an airplane to cruise at supersonic speeds (also known as supercruise) has a
significant impact upon the configuration. The need to maintain a subsonic leading edge results in high
leading edge sweep angle. In addition, the cross sectional area distribution of these airplanes is very
critical to minimizing wave drag. Examples are:
North American RA-50 Vigilante
North American XB-70A Valkyrie
Convair B-58A Hustler
Dassault Mirage IV-A
Tupolev TU-22
Rockwell International B-1B

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Tupolev TU-144
Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde
Boeing Supersonic Transport (SST)
Boeing AST-100
NASA SSX Jet IIT*
NASA SSX Jet III*
*These are conceptual designs that were never actually built.
Aspect ratios are in the range 1.65 to 4.0, yielding lift curve slopes that are very low (we will see this
relationship when we discus wings). Because of this the angle of attack during low speed approach is
high, making pilot visibility over the nose a major problem. The TU-144, the Concorde and the Boeing
proposed SST solved this problem by incorporating a rotating section of the forward fuselage (i.e., the
crew station) which rotates downward in landing configuration. Leading edge sweep angles vary from
42 (Vigilante) to 66 (B1B with wings swept).
Supersonic transports produce sonic boom, which is why most countries prohibit supersonic flight over
land. Military airplanes are exempt from this regulation as long as they stay in certain predefined
corridors.
Inlet placement on supersonic airplanes is another critical design consideration. Note that most have the
inlets far aft and under the wing. This results in favorable pressure interference and facilitates area
ruling.

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