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Conceptual Design of Fuselages, Cabins and Landing Gears – Methods, Statistics, Tool Setup

Author: Pieter-Jan Goderis

Master Thesis

Abstract

The tool – in form of a Microsoft Excel sheet - is made for easily proposing input data for the preliminary aircraft design and the optimization of the program PrADO. By using several statistic data, empirical formulas and a minimal of input data, propositions of dimensions for airplane fuselages and landing gear are given.
The designing goal of this tool is conventual airplanes for commercial passenger use. For smaller bussiness jets the tool could be used too, but is not so reliable. The tool can be used for very large aircraft but is limited to single deck aircraft.
When used for very large aircraft this will result in a high amount of seats abreast and a lot of lost space in the cross-section, or a very long aircraft with an increased weight a passenger because of higher bending moments.
The landing gear part of the tool is based on a tricycle landing gear layout. Because of limited designing methods, only a limited amount of output can be given. When the tool is compared to realty by use of some examples, there can be seen that the tool is quiet correct.