The Preliminary Aircraft Design and Optimization Program for Supersonic Commercial Transport Aircraft PrADO-Sup

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper presents the multi-disciplinary design code PrADO-Sup for supersonic commercial transport aircraft which is astrongly modified and extended version of PrADO, the Preliminary Aircraft Design and Optimization Code developed at the Institute of Aircraft Design and Structural Mechanics of the Technical University of Braunschweig. The modular structure of PrADO-Sup is shown and all topics within the iteration and optimization loops are addressed. Detailed information is given on the integration of an advanced aerodynarnic model. Here the higher order panel code HISSS, developed by DASA-LM, was implemented to provide data for a wide range of both subsonic and supersonic onflow conditions. INTRODucnONContinuously rising air traffic and extended routes will lead to adecision of the aerospace industry, aircraft operators and governments from different countries for the development of future high capacity aircraft within the next few years. On the one hand this will be a conventional ultra high capacity aircraft with 600+ passengers cruising at high subsonic speed and on the other hand a new supersonic transport aircraft with increased capacity of 250+ passengers and increased range of 5000+ nm compared to the Concorde, the one and only commercially operated supersonic transport aircraft in the world. This new supersonic aircraft has to fulfill current and future environmental requirements such as pollution or take-off noise and must be economically competitive against new subsonic aircraft. Due to the complexity of a totally revised new aircraft and due to the sensitivity of a supersonic transport configuration with respect to aerodynamics, structural weight, engine performance and environmental constraints a multidisciplinary design and optimization tool has to be used to get the most economic result fitting within all the requirements and constraints. That is why DLR, Institute of Design Aerodynamics, is currently adapting a preliminary aircraft design and optimization program for supersonic commercial transport aircraft, called PrADO-Sup. This code is a strongly modified and extended version of PrADO [1], a code developed at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Institute of Aircraft Design and Structural Mechanics. Besides the redesign of the existing supersonic transport configuration, the Concorde, for the validation of PrADO-Sup the code will be run for the design and optimization of advanced configurations, parameter and sensitivity studies within the design and the analysis of future unconventional configurations like blended wing bodies or canard configurations. This paper shows the modular structure of PrADO-Sup. All the topics within the iteration and optimization loops are addressed and detailed information is given on the integration of an advanced aerodynarnic model. Here the higher order panel code HISSS [2], developed by DASA-LM, was implemented to provide valid data in a wide range of both subsonic and supersonic flow.