Fundamental Parameters of Airline Performance - Essay Example

Fundamental Parameters of Airline Performance Name Institution Course Date Fundamental Parameters of Airline Performance Performance parameter analysis encompasses some aspects of flight including how slow or fast an aircraft flies, its endurance, range, the amount of fuel it can hold and the maximum altitude. Such performance measures depend on forces or parameters acting on the plane such as engine thrust, weight and aerodynamic lads. Parameters such as lift, drag and thrust work hand-in-hand for an aircraft to fly. On the other hand, the airplane’s wings are one of the most crucial concepts of a plane that take part in making the plane fly. In general, the wings offer the aircraft lift while weight maintains balance. Fundamental parameters of aircraft performance may include weight, maximum lift coefficient, drag, and geometry to name a few. This paper details out and analyses the performance parameters for aircrafts. It will offer a description of the parameters and how they influence airplane performance. It will also focus on Airbus A380 in explaining the performance of the aircraft taking into consideration the mentioned parameters. There are a number of fundamental parameters that are associated with the performance of an aircraft. These parameters are the factors that govern the aircraft performance and directly influence how they affiliate with the operations of an aircraft. These parameters also affect the geometry of the aircraft as well. The parameters that directly influence the performance of an aircraft include cruise, drag, maximum lift coefficient, geometry and weight. First and foremost, maximum lift coefficient is the phenomenon where an aircraft provides a lift as it propels at a very high speed as it cuts through the atmosphere. This lift is created by the difference in pressure between the bottom of the wing surface and the top surface of the wing. This pressure difference causes the aircraft to lift. Secondly, drag experienced on an aircraft is the resistance which an aircraft experiences when cutting through the air during a flight operation. This drag is comprised of quite a number of constituents that encourage its occurrence. These are friction drag, lift induced drag, pressure drag as well as compression drag. Thirdly, cruise is a parameter that most modern aircrafts use about 90% of their time during a flight therefore it is a major factor that contribute to the performance of an aircraft as well as its design. It is defined as the moderate speed in which an aircraft travels during its flight period. Weight of the aircraft together with its aerodynamics is also one of the principal factors that determine flight performance. The weight of an aircraft can be categorized into three main components which are as follows; weight of the aircraft in its empty state, weight of people aboard the plane and finally, fuel weight. Last but not least, the geometry of the plane also plays a key role in determining the plane’s performance characteristics. An aircraft’s geometry involves its typical layout which is inclusive of the platform area of the wing as well as the taper ratio of the wing. Furthermore, the parameters mentioned above affect various performance characteristics of an aircraft for instance fuel consumption efficiency, power output as well as the engine efficiency to name a few. The fundamental parameters therefore play a very important role in ensuring that an aircraft is at its optimum efficiency during its operation. Maximum lift as mentioned earlier refers to the process by which an aircraft is lifted off the ground due to the differential change in pressure between the top surface of the aircraft’s wings and the bottom surface. Lift coefficient is a function of the shape as well as the cross-sectional area of a certain aircraft’s wing. This therefore means that the lift generated to an aircraft will be dependent on the shape and cross-sectional area in which the wing is designed. Lift is also influenced by the twist distribution as well as the type of section used to build the aerofoil, outline of the flap and most importantly the flow brought about by the wing vortex onto the wing. In addition, drag as a parameter influences the performance characteristics of an aircraft significantly. Most at times, the drag of an airplane is calculated when it is at its steady-state cruise. It can also be measured during the other flight states for example when the aircraft is taking off or even during its final operations of landing. Since cruise takes about 90% of the flight operations, the aspect of drag is well measured at this section of the flight. The aspect of drag has been very important in the aviation industry since it influences directly the characteristic performance of an aircraft therefore various analytical developments had to be carried out for example wind tunnel tests as well as full test flights. Analytical solutions have since been discovered by making the aircrafts as aerodynamic as possible thus significantly reducing the effect of drag which in turn increases the aircraft’s engine capability and performance as well as increased fuel efficiency. Drag also plays a key role during cruise since it is caused by friction induced due to the contact between the atmosphere and the surface of the aircraft. This then influences the characteristic performance of the aircraft since the aspect of aircraft size and the degree of smoothness of the aircraft’s skin comes into consideration. Also, cruise is another parameter that influences the characteristic performance of an aircraft. As mentioned earlier, cruise takes about 90% of the total flight operation therefore it is very significant in the overall performance and design of an aircraft. Since the start of aviation engineering, designers have always pushed to widen the performance envelope of aircrafts when it comes to balancing speed and efficiency. Cruise as a parameter refers to the average speed an aircraft travels from one point to another. Therefore, speed as one of the performance characteristics is influenced by cruise. Shape technology as well as the wing design is two areas which enhance the cruise capability of an aircraft which in turn influences the speed of the aircraft. In addition, cruise is also important since when there is an irregular flow of air speed in different sections of the aircraft, issues such as shockwave, difficulties in controlling the aircraft, increase in drag as well as stability difficulties may arise considerably lowering the performance characteristics of the aircraft. Moreover, cruise also will determine how efficient the plane’s engine will burn its fuel in order to bring its fuel consumption to an optimum. Weight of the aircraft is also another type of parameter that directly affects the aircraft’s characteristic performance. Weight of an aircraft comprises of its own self weight, weight of the passengers on-board as well as the weight of the fuel. Therefore, in the aviation industry, there are a number of rules and regulations that govern the overall weight of the aircraft. For example, there is a maximum weight of aspects like payload, fuel load, take-off weight and landing weight. This parameter influences the engine performance since it can indicate maximum efficiency when the airplane is at optimum weight, neither overweight nor underweight. For example, if an aircraft is way past its maximum weight, it will tend to use more power in order to facilitate its take-off hence actions such as fuel dumping would be necessary in order to achieve its maximum take-off weight. This will enable its performance to increase since the plane’s engine will be operating at an optimum efficiency. Finally, the geometry of an airplane also affects its performance since it describes its overall shape and appearance. This factor influences other parameters for example drag. If the geometry of the plane is aerodynamic, it will immensely reduce the drag experienced by the plane which in turn allows the engines to work at their maximum efficiency. On the other hand, if the geometry of the aircraft is not streamlined, the amount of drag experienced by the plane will increase while it is at its cruise mode which in turn will bring about average speeds that are inconsistent thereby causing inefficiencies in both its engine performance and also when it comes to fuel consumption. Airbus A380 is considered the largest airliner in the world. It has a 550 square meter cabin floor space (Jones, 2006). It also has a design range of about 8,500 nautical miles and a cruising speed of about 900 km/h or Mach 0.85. It is a four-engine aircraft and can accommodate 544 passengers. Initially, Airbus A380 was developed without thrust reversers that enabled it to have enough braking ability to work without them. Nevertheless, Airbus A380 chose to equip its inboard engines with thrust reversers during the late stage of its development which were designed to assist the brakes in case the runway is slippery (Lawler, 2006). The A380 aircraft is made up of actuated thrust reversers that enable it to have a better reliability and saves weight. The aircraft has four 70,000lb thrust engines that are characterized with low arrival noise. As mentioned earlier, weight is one of the fundamental performance parameter of aircrafts, thus it affects the performance of Airbus A380 (Saporito, 2009). What A380 has done is to employ a new design that uses wieldable aluminium alloys in making the wings and fuselage. This allows the use of manufacturing technique referred to as laser beam welding. Using of such technique is known to eliminate rows of rivets which results to a lighter and stronger structure. It also employs a composite material for the wing box that has enabled it reduces the weight of the aircraft. In addition, Airbus A380 employs wingtip devices just as those utilised in A310 to reduce induced drag thereby maximizing on fuel efficiency and performance (Lawler, 2006). In addition, the Airbus A380 uses a minimum of four electrical generators, eliminating speed drives and thus improving reliability and performance. In further reducing the weight, A380 uses aluminium power cables and not copper power cables that tend to increase weight of aircrafts. Another important consideration in analysing Airbus A380 performance is the cruise range of the aircraft. A380 has a cruise range of about 8,300 nautical miles (Saporito, 2009). In addition, Airbus A380 is made up of wings that are specified for maximum take-off weight. However, the aircraft wing design has sacrificed its fuel efficiency. Generally, the A380’s airframe is made up of aluminium and composite material that takes about 20% of the total airframe. In 2005, it was recommended that the A380 to have a separation criterion on take-off and landing of more than 767 since initial flight test data showed stronger wake turbulence. This has enabled for effective maximum lift. With regard to geometry, Airbus A380 was at first developed in two models, the A380F and the A380-800. The first model, A380F carried 150 tonnes of cargo within 10,400 km. The second model; A380-800’s original design carried 555 passengers within a three-class configuration or a total of 853 passengers in a single economy configuration (Saporito, 2009). In May 2007, the configuration was established with 30 fewer passengers that were able to fly from Hong Kong to say Sydney non-stop. This generally has made the aircraft fly for a long duration without refuelling. Also the Airbus uses a cockpit layout and handling characteristics as those in other Airbus aircrafts thereby reducing crew training costs and reliability (Saporito, 2009). To sum it up, the fundamental parameters that are associated with the performance of an aircraft are cruise, drag, maximum lift coefficient, weight and geometry. These parameters play a very important role in determining the characteristic performance of an airplane. With regard to an aircraft’s characteristic performance, parameters for example drag and geometry work hand in hand in order to increase the performance of the plane as well as its engine’s efficiency and fuel consumption. Also, weight and maximum lift coefficient go parallel to each other since weight of the plane acts as a function of its lift coefficient. These parameters work hand in hand with each other so as to facilitate high engine performance as well as greater fuel consumption which in turn provide a safe environment for passengers. References D. A. Clifton 2005, TORCH Feature Detector Applied to Performance Parameters, Issue 1, Technical Report, Oxford Bio-Signals Ltd. John, D. Anderson 2004, Aircraft Performance and Design, Review of Engineering Studies, vol. 28, no. 3, p. 537-555. Kingsley, J., 17 February 2006, "Boeing's 747-8 vs A380: A titanic tussle". Flight International. Retrieved 25 September 2013. Norris, 2005. p. 7. Lawler, A 2006, "Point-To-Point, Hub-To-Hub: the need for an A380 size aircraft". Leeham.net. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2010. Raymer P. Daniel. 2009, Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning. Saporito, B 2009, "Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?", Time. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2010. Read More