Flight Sim Lab - Experiment 3

Mohammed Ajmal - AE14B043, Harshal Mankar -AE14B041

September 2015

Title

To investigate how does the power required for steady level flight vary with
speed.

Introduction

Performance is a term used to describe the ability of an aircraft to accomplish

certain things that make it useful for certain purposes. For example, the ability
of an aircraft to land and take off in a very short distance is an important factor
to the pilot who operates in and out of short, unimproved airfields. The ability
to carry heavy loads, fly at high altitudes at fast speeds, or travel long distances
is essential performance for operators of airline and executive type aircraft.
The various items of aircraft performance result from the combination of
aircraft and powerplant characteristics. The aerodynamic characteristics of the
aircraft generally define the power and thrust requirements at various conditions
of flight, while powerplant characteristics generally define the power and thrust
available at various conditions of flight. The matching of the aerodynamic configuration with the powerplant is accomplished by the manufacturer to provide
maximum performance at the specific design condition (e.g., range, endurance,
and climb).

Theory

Power required
PR = D.v

(1)

Ps denotespowersuppliedbyengine.
vdenotesvelocity
Ddenotesdrag

PR = Pmax
1

(2)

where ispowersettingandPmax is120KW.

Inasteadyf lightlif t = weightandthrust = drag
v 2 SCL = 2W

(3)

Procedure
Open the Flight Simulator software and open the console for setting power
by pressing / key.
Get the HUD display by pressing H.
Now fly the flight to some height and readings of different velocities for
different power settings
2

 Similarly for different takereadingsof velocitiesatsteadyf lightf ordif f erentheights.

Observations

Power Setting
1
0.95
0.9

v ( in kts ) for h=500

115
112
90

v ( in kts ) for h=1000

120
115
95

v ( in kts ) for h=1500

135
130
112

Table 1: Data of variation between Power setting and Velocity for

constant Height

Angle of Attack (degrees)

0
10
20

v ( in kts ) for h=1500

115
95
90

v ( in kts ) for h=1000

112
91
87

Table 2: Data of variation between Angle of Attack and Velocity for

constant Height

Result
From the graph , we get that altitude increases , velocity increases for
same power setting .
Also, for same angle of attack, as the altitude increases, velocity increases.

v ( in kts ) for h=500

90
79
75

Figure 1: Variation of Power setting and Velocity for constant Height

Figure 2: Variation between Angle of Attack and Velocity for constant

Height