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Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Science Volume 2, Number 4, October 2015 , pages 367-389 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/aas.2015.2.4.367 |
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Simple formulas for the fuel of climbing propeller driven airplanes |
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Gilles Labonte
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| Abstract | ||
| Simple solutions are obtained for the fuel required by internal combustion engine airplanes on trajectories with a constant rate of climb or descent. Three modes of flight are considered: constant speed, constant Mach number and constant angle of attack. Starting from the exact solutions of the equations of motion for the modes of motion considered, approximate solutions are obtained that are much easier to compute while still being quite precise. Simpler formulas are derived for the weight of fuel, speed, altitude, horizontal distance, time to climb, and power required. These formulas represent a new important contribution since they are fundamental for the analysis of aircraft dynamics and thus have direct applications for the analysis of aircraft performances and mission planning. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| airplane fuel consumption; airplane equation of motion; climbing airplanes; descending airplanes | ||
| Address | ||
| Gilles Labonte: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, Canada | ||
