A comprehensive review of vertical tail design

Abstract

This work aims to deal with a comprehensive review of design methods for aircraft directional stability and vertical tail sizing. The focus on aircraft directional stability is due to the significant discrepancies that classical semi-empirical methods, as USAF DATCOM and ESDU, provide for some configurations because they are based on NACA wind tunnel (WT) tests about models not representative of an actual transport airplane. Design/methodology/approach: The authors performed viscous numerical simulations to calculate the aerodynamic interference among aircraft parts on hundreds configurations of a generic regional turboprop aircraft, providing useful results that have been collected in a new vertical tail preliminary design method, named VeDSC. Findings: The reviewed methods have been applied on a regional turboprop aircraft. The VeDSC method shows the closest agreement with numerical results. A WT test campaign involving more than 180 configurations has validated the numerical approach. Practical implications: The investigation has covered both the linear and the non-linear range of the aerodynamic coefficients, including the mutual aerodynamic interference between the fuselage and the vertical stabilizer. Also, a preliminary investigation about rudder effectiveness, related to aircraft directional control, is presented. Originality/value: In the final part of the paper, critical issues in vertical tail design are reviewed, highlighting the significance of a good estimation of aircraft directional stability and control derivatives

Aerodynamic Characteristics of an Innovative Large Turboprop Through Wind Tunnel Tests Including Propulsive Effects

“…This contribution can be appreciated by comparing the CNβ of the canard-off configuration with and without the horizontal summarized in Table 4. This advantageous interference effect is known from literature [9][10] [19].…”

“…This configuration is the result of a multidisciplinary analyses and optimization process involving the following disciplines: weight and balance, aerodynamics, stability and control, performance, and DOC. The MDAO process also included several methodologies developed by DAF research group dealing with both vertical tail design and sizing [9][10] and fuselage aerodynamics prediction method [11].…”

Co-design of aircraft vertical tail and control laws with distributed electric propulsion and flight envelop constraints

“…with C L,v β the lift slope of a swept wing determined using Diederich formula for swept wing [8]. K F , K W and K H are corrective coefficients accounting respectively for the fuselage, the wing and the horizontal tail geometry and position [22], [23]. The advantage of this method lies in the fact that it is a direct method, allowing to modify the vertical tail geometry and update the aircraft aerodynamic coefficients rapidly.…”

Design Guidelines for Supersonic Aircrafts in Civil Aviation

“…Nicolosi, Della Vecchia, Ciliberti, and Cusati (2016) discussed in detail the isolated fuselage aerodynamics. For sizing, there are several design methods developed over the years, the most recent and robust one being VeDSC as demonstrated by Nicolosi, Ciliberti, Della Vecchia, Corcione, and Cusati (2017). For lift slope, it can be estimated as Subsonic…”