Abstract
This is our second case study and it focuses on the development of heavier-than-air aircraft and the development of the civil air transportation system. The evolution of aircraft is impressive in terms of both performance and safety. Despite the fact that most commercial jet aircraft today look quite similar to the pioneering Boeing 707 (The Boeing 707 had its first flight in 1957: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707) which eventually became the dominant design, there are many new technologies that have enabled the unique air transportation system we have today. One area of particular importance is the development of the high-bypass ratio, turbofan engine. We conclude by looking forward in time and establishing a list of challenges and potential competitors when it comes to future aviation technologies.
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Notes
- 1.
Source: https://www.historyhit.com/1785-english-channel-balloon-crossing/ Their competitor de Rozier died in the attempt to cross the channel two years earlier, becoming (with his copilot Pierre Romain) the first documented aviation fatality, Icarus notwithstanding.
- 2.
I hesitate to say that there are absolutely no other ways than these three concepts to fly. I stated these are the three known mechanisms. Predictions about what is and is not possible with technology should only be made with extreme caution.
- 3.
Air density at international standard atmospheric (ISA) conditions (sea level and 15 °C) is 1.225 kg/m3.
- 4.
This is the subject of the famous “rocket equation” first written down by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1903, which is not the subject of this chapter. However the rocket equation and Bréguet’s range equation – which we do discuss later – are quite similar in form due to the logarithmic term involving the changing mass of the vehicle over the course of the flight.
- 5.
However the shape is not a perfect parabola when accounting for air drag. In fact the problem becomes difficult to solve analytically once all relevant forces are included. This is another example where a seemingly “simple” problem can be quite complex to solve in practice. As soon as the velocity reaches orbital velocity the shape of the trajectory becomes circular and the object can go into orbit around the Earth or another central body.
- 6.
We will give the solution to this problem later.
- 7.
It is not an overstatement to say that the Wright Flyer was bioinspired.
- 8.
Remember that the integral of (1/x) is ln(x).
- 9.
Keep in mind that about half the weight of the aircraft at takeoff is fuel.
- 10.
An important source of revenue for aviation early on was carrying mail for the U.S. postal service. Only with the advent of the DC-3 aircraft did the carrying of passengers become a viable business.
- 11.
A graduate of the MIT Aeronautics Program (SB’ 1914).
- 12.
This Figure of merit (FOM) is perhaps the most important to airlines after range, payload, and safety. It indicates the percentage of time that a flight is ready, that is, not delayed more than 15 minutes due to a technical issue with the aircraft. Generally, an operational reliability of 99.7% or better is expected.
- 13.
Keep in mind that a kilogram of kerosene has an energy density of about 42 [MJ/kg].
- 14.
See Chap. 3 for a detailed discussion on bioinspired design.
- 15.
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely curtailed air traffic worldwide, and many airlines operated at well below 50% capacity during the peak of the pandemic. It is unclear what the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry will be.
- 16.
We saw in Chap. 7 that technological disruption is not the exception, but the norm. The ice-harvesting and ice-making industries eventually collapsed when electro-mechanical refrigerators were introduced at large scale. However, the function of “keeping food cold” or more precisely “keeping food from spoiling” did not disappear. It is now being fulfilled by a completely different architecture and technology that no one (or only very few people) envisioned in the early nineteenth century. Likewise, we must ask the question: Assuming that people’s desire to travel from A to B quickly over large distances is a need that will still exist in the twenty-second century and beyond, how else could this function be achieved other than by flying through the air in a man-made machine? There are individuals and firms who are asking this question in aviation today.
- 17.
References
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Shougarian Narek, “Towards Concept Generation and Performance-Complexity Tradespace Exploration of Engineering Systems Using Convex Hulls”, Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Doctoral Thesis, February 2017
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de Weck, O.L. (2022). Case 2: The Aircraft. In: Technology Roadmapping and Development . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88346-1_9
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