Amphibious airplane for underwater observation: Conceptual design

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting the conceptual design of an amphibious airplane for underwater observation in the territory of Japan. Taking into account the specificity of this type of vehicles, particular attention should be paid to the analysis of aerodynamic and dynamic characteristics of aircraft. In order to cope up with this topic, commercial tools have been exploited (such as ANSYS Fluent for wing aerodynamics analysis) as well as the home-built software PANUKL package for aerodynamic analysis of the entire airplane and simulation and dynamic stability analysis for dynamic analysis. Special attention was given to the priorities resulting from understanding the characteristics of the Japanese client.