of light aircraft

440 Pages·2000·19.08 MB·English

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N A S A C O N T R A C T O R
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A STUDY OF NACAA ND NASA
PUBLISHED INFORMATION OF
PERTINENCE IN THE DESIGN
OF LIGHT AIRCRAFT
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Volume I Structures
by Fredm-ck 0. Smetma
Prepared by
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Raleigh, N. C.
for Langley Research Center
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTOND , . C.
A STUDY OF NACA AND NASA PUBLISHED INFOR.MATION
OF PERTINENCE IN THE DESIGN OF LIGHT AIRCRAFT
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Volume I Structures
By Frederick 0. Smetana
Distribution of this report is provided in the interesto f
information exchange. Responsibility for thec ontents
resides in the author or organization that prepared it.
Prepared under Contract No. 1-7265 by
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERJNG
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Raleigh, N.C.
for Langley Research Center
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
For sale by the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical information
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Springfield, Virginia 22151 Price $3.00

Acknowledgements
Examination will show that the preparation of this report involved a
great many lengthye ditorialt asks. Many figures were prepared,r eports had
tob es ecured,a ccountk ept of thoser eviewed,t ypescript'p roofread, etc.
Mr. Delbert C. Summey was principallyr esponsiblef ort hesef unctions. His
contribution is herewith gratefully acknowledged.
Mr- Joseph W. Stickle of theL angleyR esearchC enter, who acteda s
technical monitor, madem any valuable suggestions relative to' the conduct of
the work. His contribution is also acknowledged.
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Table of Contents
Page
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GeneraIl n troduction 1
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GenerCa lo nclusions 4
A Study of NACA and NASA Published Information of Pertinence
. . . . . .
int he Designa ndC onstructiono fL ightA ircraftS tructures 6
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Appendix 23
NACA Technical Notes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 25
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 282
NASA Memorandum( Memo)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 309
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 310
NASA Technical Notes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 312
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 326
NACA Technical Reports
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 346
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 368
NASA Technical Reports
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 370
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 373
NACA Wartime Reports
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 374
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 416
NACA Research Memorandum
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 417
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 418
NACA Technical Memorandum
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Not Applicable 430
NASA Technical Translation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Applicable 432
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not Applicable 433
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Individuals in the National Aeronautics andS paceA dministrationh ave
long felt that much of thea gency'sr .esearch,a lthougho riginallyp erformed
in support of military andc ommercial transport programs, has not been applied
as completely as it mighth aveb een to general aviation activity, particularly
as the flight speed of these aircraft reached regions in which military and
commercial transport aircraft have operated during the past twenty-nine years.
NASA has also recognized that general aviation manufacturing concerns are quite
small compared to the usual aerospace manufacturer; they do not have the large
engineering staffs to adapt net7 technology rapidly, but operate more nearly
like the majority ofA mericanm anufacturingc oncernsw heree volutionaryc hanges
rathert hanr evolutionaryc hanges are theo rdero ft hed ay. As a result,
technical information contained in NASA files must be specially processed to
make it reallyu sefult os uchf irms. As originallyc onceived,t hev ehiclef or
this transfer .c7ould be a modem,s tep-by-stepd esignm anual.
Another difficulty faced by the general aviation industry is the lack of
young engineering talent with an appreciation of and interest in the industry's
problems.T his is a result of thea lmoste xclusivea ttentiont ot hep roblems
of supersonic and space flight which has been characteristic of American
aeronauticale ducationf ort hep ast1 5y ears. Younger faculty, for the most
part, are not familiar with the problems of light aircraft design and so fail
to motivate students to consider this field.
As a ~7ay of aiding the general aviation industry in this area as well as
with technical information, NASA contracted with North Carolina State
University to have a groupo fy oungerf acultya nds tudentsc onduct a surveyo f
all NACA and NASA-generatedw ork since 1940 to identify technical information
of potential use in a light aircraft design manual.F ivef aculty members of
the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering participated in the
program.E ach vas assisted by two AerospaceE ngineerings eniors who also were
given special sections of the regular senior work in Aerospace Engineering of
direct pertinence to light aircraft.
Dr. James C. TkLlliams ~7asr esponsible for reviewing the work 'in aero-
dynamicsa nd v7as assisted by Mr. Edwin Seiglar and Mr. Delbert Summey.
Dr. John N. Perkins v7as responsible for reviewing the work in air loads
and v7as assisted by Mr. DonaldK neppera nd Mr. Wlliam Rickard.
Dr. Clifford J. Moore reviewed the worko n propulsion systems analysis
and t7as assisted by Mr. DonaldG raya nd Mr. JohnnyL ogan.
Mr. Dennis M. Phillips reviewed the work in performance-, stability and
co.n trol, and flight safety and was assisted by Mr. Robert Pitts and Mr. Paul
Ho
Dr. Frederick 0. Smetana was responsiblef orr eviewingt he work in
construction analysis, materials, andt echniquesa nd was assisted by Mr. Hudson
M r.
Guthriea nd FrankD avis. Dr. Smetana alsoa cted as PrincipalI nvestigator
on the project.
The majorityo ft he workb egan 1 June 1968. The studentsd evoted
approximately 30 hours a week each for the 13 weekso f the summer and 8 hours
per week during the fall semester tot hep roject.F aculty commitment was
approximately1 /4 time during the summer and 2/5 time during the fall semester.
The students performed the majority of the actual document reviews after
beingi nstructed as tot het ype ofi nformationd esired. The facultya lso
providedg uidance when pertinence of a particular report was questioned or the
treatment was tooa dvanced.B eginning in late fall,t hef aculty members
carried out an analysiso ft he reviews in their areas ofc ognizancet o
(1) identify those of most probably interest in the developmento f a design
manual, (2) definet he state oft he art in each area, and (3) identifyt hose
areas particularlyw ell-treatedo rr equiringa dditionalr esearch. The bodyo f
this report contains the results of the analysis relating to structural design.
The individual reviews are reproduced in the appendix. Volume I1 treats aero-
dynamicsa nda erodynamicl oadsw hile Volume I11 is concernedw ithp ropulsion
systems,p ropellers,p erformancec alculation,s tability and control, and
flight safety.
It w i l l be recognized that the assignment of a "not applicable" label to
a particular report is a judgment decision; the standards for makings uch
assignmentsi nevitablyv ary somewhat fromd ay to daya ndf rom individual to
individual.T here is alsot het endency on thep art ofa ny reviewert o become
more critical of the value of a report to a particular project as his
experiencea ndt he number ofr eportsh eh asr eviewedi ncreases.S incet he
present review beganw itht he earliest documents, this discrimination is
applied more noticeably in the later documents.A dditionally, it seems to be
inevitable that in the process ofa ssigningr eportst ot hev ariousg roupsa nd
individuals for review some are reviewed twice and others not at all.
Although an effort was made to correct such deficiencies, some undoubtedly
remain.F ort hesea ndo thers,t her eader'si ndulgence is requested.
No attempth asb een made to have the analyses prepared by the faculty
conform to a single style. This wouldh aveb eend ifficultb ecause all were
prepareds imultaneously;b ut more importantly, the various topics were found
to have been given different emphasis with time and to vary widely in depth.
Consequently,e achf aculty member was asked to adopt that style whichs eemed
most appropriate to the material being covered.
Then umber ofd ocuments to be examined was on theo rdero f1 0,000. A
simple calculation w i l l show that on the average less than 30 minutesc ould
bea llottedt oe achr eport. Even if oned iscountst he 30%-40%w hich were
considered not applicable, the time available for review was still not large.
It is a fact, also, that the rate ofg enerationh asi ncreasedm arkedlyd uring
the last niney ears. However, sincea ni n-depthi ndexo f all current NASA-
generated documents hasb eena vailablef orc omputers earchings ince 1962a nd
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since current reports are more likely to be familiar to the working engineer,
majore mphasis was placed on those reports produced prior to 1962.
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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Five faculty members, assisted by ten undergraduate students, of the
Departmento fM echanicala ndA erospaceE ngineering at North Carolina State
University have reviewed the NACA/NASA-generated literature published since
1940 for information of possible pertinence to the design of light aircraft.
On the basis of these reviews , it is concluded that:
1. There is a wealtho fs tructurald esigni nformationa vailable
which, if incorporated intelligently in light aircraft construction,
could result in improved structural efficiency.
2. To applyt hisi nformationi nt he most effective fashionp ossible,
computerp rogramsw hichh avem odest time requirements and which specify
the material gauges, the stiffener configuration and the stiffener
spacing when supplied with the body shape desired and the loading
expected must be developed.
3. The informationa vailable on propulsions ubsystems is adequatef or
designp urposesb utr equiresc arefula ndc ompletea ssemblya ndm ustb e
accompanied by detailed instructions for it to be used effectively.
4. There are adequate,a lthough,c omplex,t heoreticalm ethodsa vailable
for calculating aerodynamic wing loads.
5. More sophisticatedt heoretical methodsm akingu seo fh igh-speed
computersn eed to be developed for the calculation ofa erodynamicl oads
on tail surfaces.
6. There is insufficienta ccuratei nformationa vailable on hinge
moments toc onstru.ctr eliabled esignc harts.
7. Information on gustl oade xperiencesa nds pectrald istribution is in
need of updating to permit structural designs suited to the varied
utilization of light aircraft.
8. Information on landingg earl oadsa ppearst ob ea dequate.
9. Flutteri nformation,w hilel imited,a ppearst ob es uitablef or
developmento fa dequated esign criteria.
10.T here is a lack of data on bodya erodynamicsa nd wing-body and
tail-bodyi nterference effects; otherwise,t herea ppearst ob es uffi-
cient information in the NACA/NASA literature to compilea ndp repare a
design manual. s uitable for use in the aerodynamic design of personal-
type aircraft
11. Refinedp erformancec alculationp roceduresw hichp ermitt hea ttain-
ment of instantaneously optimum flight paths andw hich are suitable for
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