CE 60069 Airport Engineering and Design

Aircraft Characteristics related to airport

planning and design

Lecture 2
06/8/2007

Aircraft Components and functions

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 Airport engineer - not primarily concerned with the
technical details of an aircraft.
Needs to know certain aircraft characteristics affect
the design of airport elements
General knowledge of the existing and projected
aircraft characteristics is clearly an important
requirement in airport planning especially when new
aircraft are expected to impact airport operations

Representative aircraft - determine the runway length

and width, the minimum separation between runways and
taxiways, the geometric project of taxiways, and the
pavement
Environmental issues - noise and air pollution ( based on
the aircraft)
On the terminal area - influence the number and size of
gates, and consequently the terminal configuration.
Aircraft passenger capacity - influence the size of
facilities
Within the terminal – such as passenger lounges and
passenger processing systems –, and the size and type of
the baggage handling system.

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Wing span length and fuselage- influence parking
requirements- terminal configuration
Size- turning radius on taxiways,width of runway
and taxiway
Length of runway- area required
Load- pavement design

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Three controls
x-axis movement-rolling movement;
y-axis- pitch
z-axis- Yawn

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 Three surfaces on an airplane that control its
movement:
Ailerons on the wings,
Rudder on the tail,
Elevators on the tail.
All of these control surfaces are like flaps.
When they move, they change the way the air flows
around the airplane.
flow of air changes how the airplane moves

Airplanes have a control stick

instead of a steering wheel.
looks like a joystick on a video
game.

Aileron
When the pilot moves the control stick to the right, the aileron on the
right wing tilts up and the aileron on the left wing tilts down.
Right aileron makes less lift when it tilts up and the left aileron
makes more lift when it tilts down.
Airplane then rolls to the side with less lift — in this case, to the
right.
When the pilot moves the control stick to the left, the aileron on the
left wing tilts up and the aileron on the right wing tilts down. The
airplane rolls to the side with less lift, which is the left side this time

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Elevators - airplane control whether the nose at the
front of the airplane points up / down.
Control stick back- the elevators tilt up- less lift-
tail goes down/ nose goes up (pitching up)
control stick forward- the elevators tilt down-
create more lift - causes the tail to rise - nose to
point down.

Rudder - vertical flap on the tail- controls the

sideways movement of the airplane’s nose to the left
or to the right (yaw)
Two pedals at the pilot’s feet control the rudder.
Pilot pushes on the right pedal-rudder tilts to the
right- airplane’s nose yaw to the right because more
lift is created on the right side.
This extra lift pushes the tail to the left, which
makes the nose yaw to the right.
When the pilot pushes on the left pedal, the rudder
tilts to the left- airplane’s nose yaw to the left.

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Pilots - use the ailerons and the rudder controls to
turn the airplane.
Whole flight path needs to curve, so the airplane
must roll to the left or right while the rudder helps
to keep it pointed in the proper direction.

When an airplane is flying in thin air- takes longer to

change direction when the control surfaces move-
fewer air molecules to push against.

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Control

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Nose & main gear: The landing gear is used during takeoff, landing,
and to taxi on the ground. Most planes today use what is called a
tricycle landing gear arrangement. This system has two large main
gear units located near the middle of the plane and a single smaller
nose gear unit near the nose of the aircraft.
o To absorb landing shocks
o To enable the aircraft to manoeuvre on ground

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Fuselage: portion of the aircraft that usually
contains the crew and payload, either passengers,
cargo, or weapons- long, cylindrical tubes or
sometimes rectangular box shapes
Wing: most important part - produces the lift that
allows a plane to fly
-made up of two halves, left and right, when
viewed from behind- connected to each other by
means of the fuselage.
Produces lift because of its special shape- called an
airfoil

Engine: use several different kinds of engines, they

two major categories
Early aircraft from the Wright Flyer until World
War II used propeller-driven piston engines- still
common today on light general aviation planes.
modern aircraft now use some form of a jet engine
Many aircraft house the engine(s) within the
fuselage itself.

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 Flap: located along the trailing edge of both the
left and right wing, typically inboard of the
ailerons and close to the fuselage.
-similar to ailerons in that they affect the
amount of lift created by the wings.
-only deflect downward to increase the lift
produced by both wings simultaneously- used
during takeoff and landing to increase the lift the
wings generate at a given speed.

- four forces in action when an

airplane flies- lift, weight (or
gravity), thrust, and drag

Lift - force that pushes the airplane up as the air flows over the
wings— Eg.. a baseball cap that flies off your head when you run, or
a strong wind that blows papers off your desk- airplanes are usually
very heavy- need a lot of lift-wings - to get more lift.
Weight:Works against this lift force.
Heavy objects need more lift force to fly because of gravity. If
you place a heavy book on your papers, they won’t blow away, unless
that wind turns into a hurricane. If you run with a football helmet
on instead of a baseball cap, you’d have to run really fast to get
lots of air flowing over it before it would fly off. If the football
helmet had a long visor sticking out into the wind, it would fly off
sooner.

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THRUST force makes the aircraft speed up along
the runway

spoilers increase the

DRAG force, to slow down
the aircraft.
As it goes slower, the
LIFT force gets less and
the aircraft starts to
descend

Aircraft size- influences the aircraft parking area

which in turn influences the terminal building
configuration.
Also decides the width of runways and taxiways and the
separation between them.
Weight together with wheel gear configuration -
important for pavement design.
Passenger capacity - important bearing on the facilities
within and around terminal building.

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 Aircraft characteristics
1. Size: Length, wing span, height.
2. Wheel base and wheel track (wheel tread).
3. Turning radius
4. Wheel gear configuration
5. Weight
6. Passenger capacity
7. Noise certification

Size of aircraft:
values for different aircrafts may vary by large magnitude as can
be seen below for two aircrafts namely, B-737-200 and B-747-
200.
Aircraft Length Wing span Height
(feet)
B-737-200 100 93 37
B-747-200 220 195 63

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Boeing-747-100

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Size of aircraft

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Wheel base together with track affects fillet
(extra-widening) design.
Track also affects runway and taxiway width

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three basic gear configurations
single wheel” (one wheel per strut),
“dual wheel” (two wheels side by side on a strut),
“dual tandem” (two wheels side by side followed by
two additional side-by-side wheels)

For more complex gear configuration- FAA, U.S. Air

Force, and U.S. Navy developed different naming
systems that were not easily cross-referenced.

Main Gear- primary landing gear - symmetrical on

either side of an aircraft.
When multiple landing gears are present and are not in
line with each other, the outer most gear pair is
considered the main gear.
Body/Belly Gear- refers to an additional landing gear
or gears in the center portion of the aircraft between
the main gears.
Body/belly gears - a different type than the main gear
and may be nonsymmetrical.
Nose gear : One at the front of the aircraft

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 Main gear carries 90-95% of the total load. For
pavement design this value is always taken as 95%.
All the wheels in a gear share the load equally

S Single
D Dual
T Triple
Q Quadruple

#X#/ #X#
Number of gear types in tandem

Gear type, e.g. S, D, T, or Q

Total number of body/belly gears

Number of main gears in line on

one side of the aircraft Gear type, e.g. S, D, T, or Q

Number of gear types in tandem

Aircraft Gear Naming Convention

2D/2D2 –2D- Two dual tandem; 2D2 - two dual tandem body/belly gears.

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D - Dual Wheel Main Gear with
2S - Two Single Wheels in Tandem
Dual Wheel Nose Gear
Main Gear with Dual Wheel Nose Gear,

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 2D/3D2 - Two Dual Wheels in Tandem Main Gear/Three Dual
Wheels in Tandem Body Gear with Dual wheel NoseGear,
Airbus A380

Aircraft Wheel Wheel Maximum Number Passenger Runway

Base(ft) Track(ft) Takeoff of capacity Length(m)*
Weight(lbs) Engines* *
A-300-600 61’01” 31’06’’ 363,765 2 247-375 7,600

A-310-300 49’11’’ 31’06’’ 330,690 2 200 -280 7,575

A-320-200 41’05’’ 24’11’’ 158,730 2 138-179 5,630

A-340-200 62’11’’ 16’09’’ 558,900 4 262-375 7,600

B-727-200 63’03’’ 18’09’’ 184,800 3 145-189 8,600

B-737-200 37’04’’ 17’02’’ 100,000 2 97-136 5,600

B-737-300 40’10’’ 17’02’’ 124,500 2 128-149 6,300

B-737-400 46’10’’ 17’02’’ 138,500 2 146-189 7,300

B-737-500 36’04’’ 17’02’’ 115,500 2 108-149 5,100

B-747-100 84’00’’ 36’01’’ 710,000 4 452-480 9,500

B-747-200B 84’00’’ 36’01’’ 775,000 4 452-480 12,200

B-747-300 84’00’’ 36’01’’ 710,000 4 565-608 7,700

B-747-400 84’00’ 36’01’’ 800,000 4 400 8,800

B-757-200 60’00’’ 24’00’’ 220,000 2 186-239 5,800

B-767-200 64’07’’ 30’06’’ 315,000 2 216-255 6,000

B-767-300 74’08’’ 30’06’’ 345,000 2 261-290 8,000

MD81 72’05’’ 16’08’’ 140,000 2 155-172 7,250

DC-10-10 72’05’’ 35’00’’ 430,000 3 270-399 9,000

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Turning Radius
Knowledge of turning radius of an aircraft to determine
the area required by the aircraft for parking in front
of the terminal building and establishing path of
aircrafts at other locations of the airport.

Turning radius - function of the nose gear steering

angle.
Larger the angle, smaller is the radius

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From the centre of rotation, the distances to the
various parts of the aircraft, such as wing tip, nose or
tail, create a number of radii.
Largest radius - most critical from the standpoint of
clearance to buildings or adjacent aircrafts.
Minimum turning radius corresponds to the maximum
steering angle specified by the manufacturer.
Maximum angle - 600 to 800

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Centre of rotation can be easily determined by drawing
through the axis of the nose gear at whatever steering
angle desired.
The intersection of the line with a line drawn through
the axis of the two main gears is the centre of rotation.
Minimum turning radius - obtained with maximum steering
angle.
For aircrafts with more than two main gears such as
B747, the axis is drawn midway between the gears.

Minimum turning radius - not used in practice very often

because the maneuver produces excessive tire wear in
some instances results in damaging the pavement surface.
lesser angles of the order of 500 are more proper.
Some examples:
Aircraft Steering angle Minimum Turning Radius Controlling Point
Degrees Feet
A-300 65 104.9 Tail
A-320 70 72.2 Wing Tip
B-737-300 78 63.0 Tail
B-747-400 70 157.0 Wing Tip

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Aircraft Weight
- one of the major factors which governs runway length
and structural design of pavements.

•Take-off weight is important for airport design

•other weights are referred to in airport and airlines
operation.

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 Aircraft Weight

a Operating empty weight;

b) Pay Load
c) Fuel weight
d) Take-off weight
e) Landing weight
f) Zero fuel weight
g) ramp weight

a) Operating empty weight = weight of the

aircraft including the crew and all the gear required
for flight but not including the payload and fuel.
Varies with seating configuration

b) Payload - revenue earning load=

passenger, mail + cargo.
For every aircraft, a maximum structural
payload, which is the maximum payload the
aircraft is certified to carry, is fixed.

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c) Fuel weight consists of two parts – trip fuel and
reserve fuel.
Trip fuel depends on the distance to be traveled,
speed, meteorological conditions, altitude at which the
aircraft is flying and payload.
Reserve fuel depends on the distance to alternative
airport, the amount of specified waiting time to land
and for international flight the trip length.

d) Take-off weight = weight prior to take-off. d= a) + b) + c).

Maximum structural take-off weight = maximum weight authorized
for the aircraft at take-off.
This value is generally taken for noise certification and pavement
design.

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e) Landing weight = weight at touch down.
Knowledge of this is required for designing landing
gear.
f) Zero fuel weight = weight above which all the
weight must be in fuel, so that when the aircraft is in
flight, the bending moment at the junction of wings
and fuselage does not become excessive
g) Ramp weight = weight of the aircraft on apron.

- OEW = Weight of structure, power plant, furnishing systems,

unusable fuel and other unusable propulsion agents, and other items of
equipment that are considered an integral part of a particular airplane
configuration. Also included are certain standard items, personnel,
equipment, and supplies necessary for full operations, excluding usable
fuel and payload.

- MTOW = maximum takeoff operating weight (or mass) -

structurally the maximum demonstrated mass at takeoff for safe
flight

- MALW = maximum allowable landing weight (or mass) is

the maximum demonstrated landing weight (or mass) to keep the
landing gear intact at maximum sink rate (vertical speed)

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MSPW = maximum structural payload weight (or mass) is
the maximum demonstrated payload to be carried
without stressing the aircraft fuselage

- MZFW = maximum zero fuel weight (or mass) is the sum of

the OEW and the MSPW

- MTW = maximum taxi weight (or mass) of the maximum

demonstrated weight (or mass) for ground maneuvering.
Usually slightly more than MTOW

DTW = desired takeoff weight (or mass) = weight of the

aircraft considering fuel (includes reserve), payload and OEW to
complete a given stage length (trip distance)

where:
is the payload carried (passengers and cargo)
is the operating empty weight
is the fuel weight to be carried (usually includes reserve
fuel)

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Distribution of various components of the weight depends generally
on the range of the aircraft.

Percentage of take-off weight

Range Op. Empty Wt. Payload Trip fuel Reserve fuel

Short range 66 24 6 4
Medium range 59 16 21 4
Long range 44 10 42 5

B 737-100

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Pay Load- Range

Range: Distance that aircraft travel without refuel

Range increases- pay load decreases

General relationship between payload and range

Point “A”- max. payload Pa and range Ra with max. structural

payload
Here fuel tank not full
Point “B”- range at max. fuel- Rb- with payload Pb
to travel Rb- aircraft take off at MSTOW
Fuel tank -FULL
Point “C”- max. distance without any payload ( ferry range)
Take off weight < max take off weight

DE- max. structural landing weight indicates how long

aircraft travel with max. payload

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Payload Vs range – depends on meteorological condition,
flight altitude, speed, fuel, wind and amount of reserve
fuel etc

Actual payload < max. pay load

Passenger ad baggage= 200 lb

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Clearances: B 737-600

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Trends in fuel consumption of jet engines

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 Aircraft Certification for Noise

Because of growing importance of noise vis a vis its effect

on environment, certain restrictions have been imposed on
the noise created by the aircrafts.
Noise certification: FAA - introduced certain regulations
- to be satisfied by the aircrafts during operation at an
airport.
Aircraft noise – sound produced by any aircraft on run-
up, taxiing, take off, over-flying or landing.
-Significant concern for approximately 100 square
kilometers surrounding most major airports.
- Second largest (after roadway noise) source of
environmental noise

Effect of aircraft noise on communities surrounding

airports presents a serious problem to aviation
1958- Commercial jet transport operations
Public reaction to aircraft noise - vigorous.
Substantial knowledge - gathered about noise and
about human reaction to noise.
On basis of this knowledge, procedures - developed -
enables the planner to estimate the magnitude and
extent of noise from aircraft operations and to predict
community response.

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Impact of aircraft noise on a community
dependant on several factors:
magnitude and duration of sound,
flight path used during take-off and landing,
aircraft mix, number and types of operation,
operating procedures,
runway system utilization,
time of day and season,
meteorological conditions

Response of communities to aircraft noise –

function of land and building use,
type of building construction,
distance from the airport,
ambient noise level,
community attitudes.

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Noise levels for Stage definition of aircraft- measured
at three points.
Regulations include two aspects – a) measuring points and
b) noise levels at these measuring points.
Measuring points: three
1. For take-off, 6500m from the start of take-off
roll on the extended centerline of the runway
2. For approach, 2000m from the threshold on the
extended centerline of the runway
3. For sideline, 450m from and parallel to the extended
runway centerline where the noise after lift-off is
maximum

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 Unit of noise used is decibel (dB)* - a measure of
relative sound pressure of the noise under consideration
and a standard pressure.

dB does not represent subjective response of the

listener,
noise level - modified for frequency and duration and
the resulting unit- used in aircraft certification - called
Effective Perceived Noise Level in decibel (EPNLdB)

FAA classifies aircraft - three stages for

clarification:
Stage 1, 2, and 3 - order from loudest to the least
noisiest.

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Stage 1
- means a take-off, flyover, or approach noise level greater than
the Stage 2 noise limits Stage 2

Stage 2
- noise limits for airplanes regardless of the number of engines are
as follows:
•For Take-off: 108 EPNdB for maximum weights of 600,000 pounds
or more.
Reduced by 5 EPNdB per halving of the 600,000 pounds
93 EPNdB for maximum weights of 75,000 pounds and less.
•For Sideline and Approach: 108 EPNdB for maximum weights of
600,000 pounds or more,
Reduced by 2 EPNdB per halving of the 600,000 pounds
102 EPNdB for maximum weights of 75,000 pounds or less.

Stage 3
•For Take-off: airplanes with more than 3 engines 106 EPNdB for
maximum weights of 850,000 pounds or more,
-Reduced by 4 EPNdB per halving of the 850,000 pounds maximum
weight
- 89 EPNdB for maximum weights of 44,673 pounds or less.
•For Take-off: airplanes with 3 engines 104 EPNdB for maximum
weights of 850,000 pounds or more,
•- Reduced by 4 EPNdB per halving of the 850,000 pounds
maximum weight down to 89 EPNdB for maximum weights of
63,177 pounds or less.
•For Take-off: airplanes with fewer than 3 engines 101 EPNdB for
maximum weights of 850,000 pounds or more, reduced by 4 EPNdB
per halving of the 850,000 pounds maximum weight down to 89
EPNdB for maximum weights of 106,250 pounds or less.

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 Stage 3
•For Sideline:
-Regardless of the number of engines 103 EPNdB for
maximum weights of 882,000 pounds or more,
--Reduced by 2.56 EPNdB per halving of the 882,000 pounds
maximum weight down to
-- 94 EPNdB for maximum weights of 77,200 pounds or less.
•For Approach:
•Regardless of the number of engines 105 EPNdB for
maximum weights of 617,300 pounds or more,
•Reduced by 2.33 EPNdB per halving of the 617,300 pounds
maximum weight down to 98 EPNdB for maximum weights of
77,200 pounds or less.

Stage 4- applies to any person submitting an application

for a new airplane type design on and after January 1,
2006.
-New noise standard for subsonic jet airplanes and
subsonic transport category large airplanes

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Noise levels for different cases for any take-off
weight of W (in lbs)

Approach.
EPNLdB = 105 – 2.33( log 617300 – logW)/ log2

Take off
a) 4 engine or more: EPNLdB = 106 – 4(log 850000 – logW)/ log2
b) 3 engine: EPNLdB = 104 – 4(log 850000 – logW)/ log2
c) 2 engine or less: EPNLdB = 101 – 4(log 850000 – logW)/ log2

Sideline
EPNLdB = 102 – 2.56(log 882000 – logW)/ log2

Checks
1. Excess at two points, OK
2. Excess at each point < 2EPNLdB, OK
3. Sum of excesses < 3EPNLdB, OK
4. Excess < less OK

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Passenger Capacity
Facilities required for processing of passengers and
their baggage will depend on the capacity of the
aircraft using the airport.

Variation is due to variations in seating arrangements

and other facilities

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