Any Ideas for an Aircraft Design?

Question

I have a class project in which we need to design a 19 passenger aircraft capable of operating under typical flight conditions for existing passenger jets (Mach ~.85-.9, at ~35,000 ft). Our design can be as exotic or mundane as we want, but the plane has to be able to safely bring the passengers at least 7000 nautical miles.

What are some good - or at least interesting - designs, and what makes them so awesome (for instance, you could say "Make it a black, blended wing body like the stealth bomber, because this configuration is very efficient and cool-looking and I would like to fly on one someday.")

Please note that I'm not trying to get anyone to do my homework for me. This will be a semester long project on which my group and I will be working out the engineering details of the chosen design. I don't really care what your answer is, just that it's creative and well-justified. I will provide a "Thumbs-Up" for good answers, and select my favorite response within the next few days.

Answer 1

I very much like the designs by Burt Rutan.

So my first recommendation is to go with composite as a construction material.

My idea would be to have a plane like the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. It would be similarly constructed but on a larger scale to fit the passengers on either side of the main hull.

The internal configuration would be to have two rows of seats on each side with a corridor in between. This would give all passengers a window seat. So the configuration would be to have ten passengers on each side hull in five rows each.

The center hull would be used exclusively for the pilot / co-pilot, fuel tanks and cargo space. In order to provide redundancy, I would place two engines on the center hull (similar to the A-10 Warthog). An added bonus of this configuration is that it would prevent a passenger/terrorist from taking a hold of the cockpit as there wouldn't be any direct access to it.

One drawback is that you would need a four person crew to man this aircraft - pilot, co-pilot and two flight attendants (one for each hull). I think two flight attendants would be required by the FAA to assist passengers during emergencies, after all their main job is not to distribute peanuts and cokes.

I like the idea of having the passenger seat facing backwards due to the increased protection provided during crash landings. However, it would be extremely disorienting to passengers and could cause vertigo. Thus in order to solve this dilema, I would take away the windows completely. This would improve structural integrity and increase the ship's lifespan.

What to do about the passengers? Provide wide-angle LCD's on the back of the head-rest of the seat in front of them (16" wide by 9" high). These would serve as TV monitors, movie/game display AND offer several views from the aircraft (selectable by each passenger). I would love to see this feature adapted in the near future - I really hate the pain in the neck I get everytime I try to look outside an aircraft window for a long period of time... specially those seats that have windows farther back than normal seating position. Also hate when the pilot comes on the PA system announcing this wonderful sight on this or the other side of the plane... always opposite to the window you are sitting on. So, I would love to be able to "see" - outside views from either side of the aircraft, a God's eye view (similar to those see from the top of the rudder) and maybe a cockpit view.

In case you chose the backward seating option I might consider using a single line seating configuration with a side corridor (10 rows, 1 seat each - 20x seats total). This would allow a reduction in the area for each hull resulting in a reduction in drag and increased range.

It was a long response to your request... hope you enjoyed it.

Would love to see the final result when you are done (maybe post it on the internet).

Good luck with your project.

Answer 2

Take a look to some examples
Long range business jets like Bombardier BD700 Global Express, Gulfstream G550.
To long range recon,bomber,record airplanes like U-2, Proteus, Fosset's voyager.
Try to find some interesting solutions between WWII futuristic German projects (Also Russian MiGs, Yak etc....and some American eXperimental planes were largely inspired(can say copied) by German projects, compare X-5 and Me-1101 to trust!!) especially between the "amerika bomber" that were designed for long range(Europe-Usa-Europe non-stop) rather than very high speeds.
You can find a lot of these projects in www.luft46.com.
But my hint is to keep the design quite conventional, don't be too innovative, it's usually a source of technical problems, and in other cases radical innovations are not understood by consumers/market.(Concorde was a wonderful airplane, but commercially it was a flop, very few were bought)
Ops now i noticed that you must be a university student, in aerospace engineering i guess. Me too, In Italy.bye...have a Nice Work!!

Ahh, for the external look I think it would be nice polished aluminum, like the golden jet era airplanes(F-86 Sabre, B-58 hustler, B-29 and DC-3 Dakota), no?

Answer 3

I think it would be interesting to see a delta-wing design (like that of the now retired Concorde, but with the focus on endurance as opposed to speed. I wonder how well the design would have worked with a more normal looking nose section, broader wings with winglets, and not quite as rakish a sweep to the wings. I would think a design that might be a hybrid between the flying wing design of a B-2 Spirit (stealth bomber) and the Concorde might offer some of the performance benefits of both, particularly in light of fly-by-wire avionics systems.

Answer 4

Appearances not related to safety or fuel efficiency mean nothing to me. I would like to see a plane with seats facing the rear, which I understand is a much safer configuration during a crash.

I would like to see a design that would take advantage of the vertical dimension to assure that the width of passenger seats will be greater because access to them would be underneath or from the top. It may be slightly awkward getting in and getting out and using the rest rooms, but in terms of shoulder room it would be quite comfortable -- essential to an up-to-7000 mile trip. I would like to see a conveyor-belt-delivery of food, drink, etc, thereby eliminating the need for flight attendants to have an shoulder-room-robbing aisle for moving about. There would be more rest rooms to offset the fact that access to them would be limited, but the rest rooms and their fixtures would be larger. The reduction of the inability to walk around is of little consequence, since mobility is restricted in the convention aircraft layouts anyway.

Answer 5

Try looking into the Blended-Wing-Body concept. It is said to have many advantages over the traditional designs of passenger jets today such as: Increased lift, lower drag, and a larger internal volume for fuel, cargo, and/or people.

Answer 6

I like the Citation X, looks great, although looking at it head on it looks like Mickey Mouse with the big engines up there (same goes for the G550) But the Citation X will cruise at mach 0.92. I also like the concepts that Gulfstream, Boeing, Lockheed have shown for a super sonic business jet or SSBJ.

Answer 7

This will sound silly but silly things could make history. Have you ever experimented with a design similar to the X-wing fighter?

Answer 8

Go with a flying wing design, it's incredibly efficient, has plenty of room, and it's range is unbelievable.

Answer 9

I have an idea but I will not share it in an open forum as I plan on marketing the design to Boeing, Hewitt, Airbus, or Cessna.

Answer 10

You said it "blended wing body" Perhaps two or three pods (bodies) in one wing. Good luck & have fun!