This study presents an aeroelastic wing shaping control concept for distributed propulsion aircraft. By leveraging wing flexibility, wing-mounted distributed propulsion can be used to re-twist wing shapes in-flight to improve aerodynamic efficiency. A multidisciplinary approach is used to develop an aero-propulsive-elastic model of a highly flexible wing distributed propulsion transport aircraf...

An analysis was conducted to examine the market visibility of small aircraft as a transportation mode in competition with automobile and scheduled commercial air travel by estimating the pool of users that would potentially switch on-demand air travel due to cost/time saving. These new aircraft greatly increase the practicality of regional aircraft as a transportation mode that can avoid the co...

This paper conducts an investigation towards main aircraft cabin parameters. The aim is two-fold: First, a handbook method is used to preliminary design the aircraft cabin. Second, an objective function representing the “drag in the responsibility of the cabin” is created and optimized using both an analytical approach and a stochastic approach. Several methods for estimating wetted area and ma...

The vertical stabilizer is a primary aerodynamic surface responsible for providing directional stability of an aircraft. Directional stability is further augmented by the yaw damping capability of the rudder using feedback control. When the rudder experiences faults or the vertical stabilizer is damaged, directional stability of an aircraft will be compromised. In the worst-case scenario, the v...

The majority of fatal aircraft accidents are associated with ‘loss-of-control’. Yet the notion of loss-of-control is not well-defined in terms suitable for rigorous control systems analysis. Loss-of-control is generally associated with flight outside of the normal flight envelope, with nonlinear influences, and with an inability of the pilot to control the aircraft. The two primary sources of n...

This paper presents a new technique for generating linear fractional transformation based uncertainty models for use in the robustness analysis of flight control systems using the structured singular value . The proposed approach does not require closedform linear expressions for the aircraft dynamics – only a non-linear software model of the closed loop aircraft, which can be efficiently trimm...

In March 1997 NLR investigated the icing atmosphere for aircraft by flying with an instrumented research aircraft through clouds. Liquid water content, droplet diameter distributions and air temperature were measured. Large droplets were found in air masses with a limited extent. Results from the measurement campaign are presented and compared with limits in aircraft and helicopter certificatio...

Aircraft departing from an airport are subject to numerous constraints while scheduling departure times. These constraints include wake-separation constraints for successive departures, miles-in-trail separation for aircraft bound for the same departure fixes, and time-window or prioritization constraints for individual flights. Besides these, emissions as well as increased fuel consumption due...