1

ME 380
The Wings the Thing
Basic Aerodynamic Forces
We need to balance the aircraft weight and
aerodynamic drag with aerodynamic lift and
propulsive thrust - aerodynamics deals with two of
these forces
LIFT
THRUST
WEIGHT
DRAG
2
Basic Aerodynamic Forces
For steady, level flight, there is no acceleration, so:
Therefore, lift and drag also scale thrust and weight.
Since what dominates the aerodynamics is the wing,
getting the wings right is critical to plane design.
W L F T D F
z x
= = = =

0 , 0
Design Methodology
There are two tried and tested ways to design an aircraft -
1. Ground up approach
Learn all of the basics, then design your vehicle around your
mission requirements
Aerodynamics propulsion structure performance etc.
2. Empirical approach
Use essential data from previously designed aircraft in your
aircraft category to determine the baseline, then worry about the
details
Weight wing size engine size etc.
3
Example: V/STOL
If you can think of it, it has been looked at
Kohlman
Where to start?
Observation - (just like the Wrights did it)
both nature and manmade
Results in the Great Flight Diagram
4
Wing Loading
From observation, it appears that W/S is an important
parameter - thus we will give it a name; wing loading
In ME330, you may have learned:
In level and steady flight, lift must equal weight
2
2 2
3 . 0
2
6 . 0
2
V
V V
C
S
W
L

= = =
2 2 2
38 . 0 25 . 1 3 . 0 3 . 0 V V V
S
W
= = =
2
2
V
S C L
L

= - lift coefficient
L
C
2
2
V
S C D
D

=
- drag coefficient
D
C
2
2
V
S C W
L

=
L =W
2
2
V
C
S
W
L

=
S: wing area
Horses Go Splat
Drop a mouse, cat, and horse from a 5 story building:
The mouse bounces, gets up, and walks away
The cat hits the ground and dies
The horse splashes
Why?
Square-cube law: surface area is proportional to size
2
while
volume (thus, density and weight) is proportional to size
3
, this also
explains why there is an upper limit to natural flyers
As size increases, so does wing loading: this begs the questions, is
there an upper limit for wing loading?
S l
2
W V l
3
W / S l
5
W, S, & W/S v. l
W/S
S
W
l
Velocity, Wing Loading & Size
Using the lift coefficient
Thus, for geometrically similar models, the speed at a
given lift coefficient increases as the square root of
the wing loading or size (thus span)
l
S
W
V
W SC V L
L

= =
2
2
1

Basic scaling dictates that larger aircraft

must fly faster.
6
Power & Wing Loading
Start w/ thrust requirements in level and steady flight
This by itself is very useful - if you know your weight
requirements and your aerodynamic efficiency, you
can determine your necessary minimum thrust. For
power
T
R
= D=
D
W
W =
D
L
W
T
R
=
W
L/ D

=
= =
U
C C
W
U
D L
W
U T P
D L
R R
/
/
Power & Wing Loading
Using the lift eqn again
Combining with the power eqn
P
BHP
=
P
R

=
W

C
D
C
L






2W
SC
L
L =W =
1
2
U

2
SC
L
U

=
2W
SC
L
P
R
= TU

=
W
C
L
/C
D
2W
SC
L
=
2W
3
C
D
2
SC
L
3
7
Minimizing Power
Re-arranging
P =
1

W
C
D
C
L
3/ 2






2

W
S
Maximize prop.
efficiency
Minimize weight
Maximize density
(minimize altitude)
Minimize
Wing loading
Maximize endurance
parameter
Power & Size
Back to scaling arguments
Thus, with a reduction in weight (size
3
), power
requirements decrease faster than the weight
Likewise, as size increases, power requirements
increase faster than the weight, leading to an upper
limit based on current propulsion technology (which is
why so much effort is put into engine design!)
P
W
3
S

l
9
l
2
l
3.5
8
Weight vs. Power
From the point of view of flapping fliers, this partly
explains why insects can fly - they dont need a lot of
power and can be very inefficient; also, larger birds
require a lot of power to generate lift, which is why they
spend most of their time soaring on thermals rather than
flapping their wings
For larger vehicles,
this explains why
their appears to be
an upper limit for aircraft size - the larger they are, the
more power they need, which feeds into the design cycle
(more power, more weight, more more more!)
SPRUCE GOOSE
www.sprucegoose.org
Bending Moment & Moment of Inertia
Next, consider wing bending moment
The moment increases the 4
th
power of the size,
which is the bending moment at the root (plane) or
load on the muscles (birds)
Finally, consider the moment of inertia about the
rolling axis (energy required to flap a wing or roll the
aircraft)
Both the moment and angular acceleration are
important; this helps to explain why insects can beat
their wings so fast while birds must flap more slowly
M = Fd Wl l
4
I
x
M
x
/ Wy
2
l
5
9
Bending Moment Too High
Bending moments higher than the design structural
load are bad, very bad - fatigue can cause this!
C-130 US Forest Service air tanker crash, 2002
Limit to Flapping Size
But it doesnt stop people from trying
Human carrying ornithopter project, headed by Prof.
Emeritus James DeLaurier, Univ. of Toronto
10
W, S, W/S, P, M, & I v. l
W/S
S
W
l
I
M P
M
Sizing Based on Wing Loading
First, what is it and why use it to size?
Amount of lift each section of wing must generate; greater wing
loading means greater lifting requirements and more stress on
structural elements - comes into play in MANY performance
measures
For example, drag (as will learn later) can be found using
D= q

SC
Do
+
W
S






2
1
eAR
S
q

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Wing Sizing
W/S W/S
586 120 Jet transport
342 79 Jet fighter
244 50 Jet trainer
195 40 Twin turboprop
127 26 GA - twin
83 17 GA - single
54 11 Homebuilt
30 6 Sailplane
kg/m
2
lb/ft
2
Category
Wing loading appears to be mission dependent, not
size dependent
Raymer
UAVs
Do these relations continue to UAVs?
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Pioneer UAV
W/S v. V: Selected UAVs
1.0E+02
1.0E+03
1.0E+04
1.0E+05
1.0E+06
10 100 1000

UAVs
Great Flight
AQM-34L
Global Hawlk
Predator-B
SD-1 Observor
Pioneer
Aerosonde
Helios
W = 0.38V
2
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Worldwide Operational UAVs
0.1
1
10
100
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
Mass (kg)
Preditor
Global Hawk A
Global Hawk B
Shadow 200
Dragon Eye
Wasp
Raven
Deimos*
FASM*
AIRCAT*
MIAV*
* nflatable
Wings
Simpson, PhD 2008
W
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