2021-2022 SPRING SEMESTER

AE 452 AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN II

Instructor: Prof. Dr. D. Funda Kurtulus (Room: 101)

Course Hours: (Section 2) Tuesday 13:40-17:30 (In the classroom AE024)

Description:
Conceptual design of aircraft. Aircraft sizing. Airfoil and geometry selection. Thrust to weight
ratio and wing loading. Configuration layout. Propulsion and fuel system integration. Landing
gear and subsystems. Weights and balance.
Stability, control and handling qualities. Performance and flight mechanics. Cost analysis.
Trade studies and optimization.

Course Outline:
Review of AE 451 Lecture notes
1. Introduction to airplane design
2. Requirements
3. Weight Estimations
Empty weight, fuel weight, maximum gross weight
4. Critical performance parameters
Maximum lift coefficient, wing loading, thrust to weight ratio.
5. Configuration layout
Overall configuration, wing configuration, fuselage configuration, center of gravity location,
tail sizing, propeller size, landing gear, etc.
6. Propulsion and fuel system integration
7. Landing Gear and Subsystems
8. Detailed Weight Analysis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Aerodynamics
10. Propulsion
11. Structures and Loads
12. Stability, control and handling qualities
Static longitudinal stability, static lateral and directional stability, dynamic stability,
handling qualities.
13. Performance Analysis
Power required and power available, rate of climb, range, stalling speed, landing
distance, take-off distance
14. Cost analysis
15. Sizing and Trade Studies

Textbook:
Raymer D.P., "Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach", 4th Edition AIAA Education
Series, 2006

Reference Books:
1. Anderson J.D., "Aircraft Performance and Design," McGraw-Hill, 1999.
2. Anderson J.D., "Introduction to Flight," McGraw-Hill, 1989.
3. Austin, R., “Unmanned Aircraft Systems, UAV Design, Development and
Deployment, Wiley, 2010.
4. Batchelor, G.K., An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics, Cambridge University Press.
5. Bertin, J. and Cummings, R., Aerodynamics for Engineers, Prentice Hall.
 6. Carichner G. E., Nicolai L.M., Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design- Volume
II Airship Design and Case Studies, AIAA Education Series, 2010.
7. Etkin, Dynamics of Flight – Aircraft Stability and Control, 2nd Edition, Wiley.
8. Howe, D. Aircraft Conceptual Design Synthesis, Professional Engineering Publishing,
2000.
9. Ilan Kroo, Aircraft Design: Synthesis and Analysis.
10. Jackson P, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 2004-2005.
11. Jeckinson L. R., Marchman III J. F., Aircraft Design Projects for engineering Students,
Butterworth Heinemann, 2003.
12. Katz and Plotkin, Low-Speed Aerodynamics, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill.
13. Kundu A. K., Aircraft Design, Cambridge Aerospace Series, 2010.
14. Küchemann, D. The Aerodynamic Design of Aircraft, AIAA Education Series, 2012.
15. McLean, D., Understanding Aerodynamics, Wiley.
16. Nelson, R.C., Flight Stability and Automatic Control, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill.
17. Nicolai L.M., Carichner G. E., Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design- Volume
I Aircraft Design, AIAA Education Series, 2010.
18. Roskam J., "Airplane Design", Darcorporation, 1989.
19. Roskam J., Chuan-Tau E.L., "Airplane Aerodynamics and Performance",
Darcorporation, 1997.
20. Schlichting, H., Boundary Layer Theory, McGraw-Hill.
21. Simons, M., Model Aircraft Aerodynamics, Argus Books, 1994.
22. Torenbeek E., “Advanced Aircraft Design,” Wiley, 2013.
23. White, F., Viscous Fluid Flow, McGraw-Hill.

Web Resources
1. XFOIL: Subsonic Airfoil Development System. M. Drela, H.H. Youngren :
http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil
2. AVL: Aircraft Configuration Development System. M. Drela, H.H. Youngren :
http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/avl
3. See How It Flies – A new spin on the perceptions, procedures, and principles of flight.
John S. Denker: http://www.av8n.com/how

Grading :
5 studies and presentations 35%-45%
Final Report (including all drawings, word, excel, matlab files etc.) 10%-15%
Midterm exam (26 April 2022 at 13:40) (closed books and notes) 20%-25%
Final exam (closed books and notes) 20%-30%

Attendance to the class is HIGHLY recommended.

Project:
https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/students-educators/Design-Competitions
 Undergraduate Team Aircraft Design RFP – Responsive Aerial Firefighting Aircraft

Design requirements are given in the following link:

https://www.aiaa.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/education-and-
careers/university-students/design-competitions/undergraduate-team-aircraft-design-
competition/undergraduate-team-aircraft-design-2021-2022---aerial-fire-fighting-
aircraft.pdf?sfvrsn=6d6f6ea5_0
Report 0: Indicate your group members. Find also a name for your group. (due to 22 March
2022 until 17:40).

Report 1 + Presentation 1: Competitor Study, Weight Estimations, Critical performance

parameters (due to 29 March 2022 until 13:40)
 Explain your aircraft requirements (based on customer/ or FAR/CS documents).
(Use your AE 451 design and experiences that you gain from the previous semester
before starting your design.)
 Draw and also explain the mission profile/profiles of your aircraft.
 According to your mission profile, perform an initial design takeoff weight estimation.
 Perform a payload and range trade-off studies. Explain and give comments about the
results that you found. Draw graphs with units.
 Perform a competitor study for your Project with minimum 5 similar aircrafts in
literature (refine your competitor study from AE 451 class). Put the data in an excel
sheet.
 Compare W0 that you calculated taking into account the mission profile with W0 of
competitor studies you have found and comment about their differences (Comment if
they are similar or explain why they are too much different.)
 Prepare a decision matrix taking into account different concepts which fits your aircraft
requirements. (high wing/low wing aircraft or retractable landing gear, tail type
discussing the advantages- disadvantages etc..)

10 min presentations of Groups

Report 2 + Presentation 2: Aerodynamic parameters, Airfoil and Wing Geometry

selection, Flap type selection, T/W and W/S selections (Matching Chart) (due to 19 April
2022 until 13:40)

 Select an airfoil for your design keeping in mind the stall characteristics, weight issues,
critical Mach number, thickness ratio and Reynolds number. Compare minimum 5 airfoils’
characteristics and choose the airfoil which will go with your design. Draw the airfoils and
their Cl-α, Cl-Cd, Cl/Cd-α and Cm at c/4 -α curves. Tabulate their characteristics (Cl max, Cd0,
Cm0, Mcr) (You can have these information from Abott «Theory of wing section» book or
from different websites) Model all the airfoils in XFOIL program. Find also some data from
the internet (experimental or numerical) close to your Reynolds and Mach numbers for the
airfoils that you compared and specifically for the airfoil that you will chose.
 Design your wing geometry (Aspect Ratio, wing sweep, twist, incidence, dihedral, wing
vertical location, wing tips, flapped or not, flap type). Choose a tail arrangement and
estimate initial tail geometry.
 Perform 3D drawing of your aircraft with any drawing programs.
(You can use XFLR5, AVL, OpenVSP, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS to draw your aircraft.
 Choose your flap type. Estimate maximum lift coefficient of your aircraft (CLmax) at takeoff
and at landing (full flap deflection).
 Estimate CD0 of your aircraft (approximately from tables or values given in the lecture).
 Estimate the Thrust to weight ratio (T/W) of your aircraft (by the approach given in Raymer)
 Estimate the wing loading (W/S) of your aircraft (by the approach given in Raymer)
 Draw matching chart with all constraints. Select your Design Point using this chart.
Compare your results obtained in questions 3 and 4 with the results obtained from matching
chart. Also compare your results with the tables available in Raymer for T/W and W/S.

10 min presentations of Groups

Report 3 + Presentation 3: Configuration layout (due to 10 May 2022 until 13:40)

o Perform Fuselage layout, sizing and lofting at different sections. Perform wing and
horizontal/vertical tail layout, sizing and lofting.
o Calculate wing, horizontal tail, vertical tail and fuselage wetted areas (by CAD
drawing, by drawing perimeter versus fuselage station graph)
o Calculate volume of your aircraft (by CAD drawing or by drawing area versus
fuselage station graph and calculating the area underneath to find volume)
o Choose your engine (preferably an existing engine) and choose your engine location.
Make an engine sizing if necessary. If applicable size your propeller (find diameter)
o Choose your fuel type. Calculate fuel volume needed from the fuel mass needed for
the given mission profile. Explain your fuel system (type of tank, location of the
tanks…) and draw their locations inside of the aircraft. Find c.g. location of your fuel
volume.
o Design your landing gear. Calculate the size of the tires.
o Perform a detailed weight analysis
o Draw C.G Envelop Diagram (taking into account retractable landing gears, fuel
consumption…)
o Find the position of your wing. Draw your wing mean aerodynamic chord’s quarter
chord point and approximate c.g. location of your aircraft. Put your c.g. with respect to
the reference to 25% of the wing’s mean aerodynamic chord location.
o Explain the need of different subsystems in your design. Make a CAD drawing of your
o inboard system configuration (show the location of systems with different colors
representing their volume like boxes)
o Perform a 3D drawing of your aircraft with a drawing tool like CATIA,
Solidworks, … etc

10 min presentations of Groups

Report 4 + Presentation 4: Aerodynamics, Structure, Stability, control and handling

qualities (due to 24 May 2022 until 13:40)

o Aerodynamics (Calculate CLα , CLmax, αCLmax, Parasite drag (CD0), Drag-due-to Lift
(KCL2) and total drag CD of your whole aircraft
o Static longitudinal stability, static lateral and directional stability, dynamic stability,
handling qualities.
o Structure ( Define your aircraft limit load and ultimate load, Draw V-n Diagram)
o Perform Longitudinal Stability Analysis of your Aircraft. Calculate Neutral Point of the
Aircraft. Calculate CM of the aircraft, Find static margin. Comment about the stability
of your aircraft. Find trim conditions for different elevator angles and angle of attacks,
Draw CMc.g versus CLtotal graph). Calculate also total induced drag including trim drag
effects.
o Perform Lateral and Directional Static Stability and Trim analysis
o Perform Dynamic Stability of your Design, find 1DOF dynamic equations
10 min presentations of Groups

Report 5 + Presentation 5: Performance Analysis, Cost analysis, Trade studies (due to 7

June 2022 until 13:40)
o Performance Analysis: Power required and power available, rate of climb, range,
stalling speed, landing distance, take-off distance, etc..
o Cost analysis
o Trade studies for T/W and W/S ratios compared to your baseline geometry

10 min presentations of Groups

LAST REPORT (due to 4 July 2022 at 13:40) Your last report should include all your
calculations of previous studies in a single formatted document like a thesis. You should
also submit all your drawings, calculations (excel files, programs), final report in word (.doc)
format and all presentations in (.ppt) format.
 You should save all your calculations for final report (excel sheets, drawings, reports in
Word format) and submit them through METUClass with your last report.

Course policies:
Study Assignments and Final Report
 Please fix your groups and your projects until 22 March 2022. The groups should be
composed of 4-5 students.
 Please use “Study_assignment_template.docx” in the course website to write your studies
and final reports.
 Study assignments are to be submitted on due date. Late submissions will not be accepted.
You should submit your reports through ODTUClass.
 Your work must be original. Duplications from past years or cheating will result in a 0 for
your project grades. Both teams who gave their project and who cheat will get 0 grade.
 You should show the reason why you are using any parameter in the calculations by giving
the graph, table or reference. You should always give reference to the documents you are
using.
 You should save all your calculations for Each Study and Final Report (excel sheets,
drawings, reports in Word format) must be submitted and/or put in the appendix section of
the report.

Make-ups:
 Make-up exams will be given if you were ill at the date of the exam and you provide a
doctor's report from medical center of METU. You should give the original medical
report to the Secretariat of the Aerospace Engineering Department. A photocopy
of the medical report should be given to Prof. Kurtulus maximum 1 week after the
exam.
 The only other excuse to enter make-up exam is to have a second exam of another
course that you are taking from METU at the time of the AE 452 exam. In this case,
you should bring a Petition Letter signed by the instructor of this second course.
 Only one make-up exam will be given after the final exam and the make-up exam will
cover all the topics.
Academic Honesty:
The METU Honour Code is as follows: "Every member of METU community adopts the
following honour code as one of the core principles of academic life and strives to develop an
academic environment where continuous adherence to this code is promoted. The members of
the METU community are reliable, responsible and honourable people who embrace only the
success and recognition they deserve, and act with integrity in their use, evaluation and
presentation of facts, data and documents."