AE 465

Aircraft Design Configuration

Conventional Configurations
Variations regarding powerplant & intake location, vertical wing position,
tail unit layout and landing gear.
Unconventional Layouts
Biplanes, variable sweep, canard designs, twin booms, multi-hulls, spanloaders, joined wing and blended wing body designs.
Special Configurational Issues
Short Take-Off & Vertical Landing, stealth, waterborne operations.

Conventional Configurations

Cantilevered monoplane wing.

Separate horizontal and vertical tail surfaces.
Control via ailerons, elevators and rudder.
Discrete fuselage to provide volume and continuity to airframe.
Retractable tricycle landing gear.
Minimum number of powerplants needed to meet power and operational
requirements.

Airbus A330

C-130 Hercules
Within the category of conventional aircraft there are many variations from the standard
to be considered:
Powerplant Location nose, wing podded, rear fuselage podded, internal.
Intake Location nose, side, ventral, dorsal.
Wing Vertical Location high, low, mid.
Tail Unit Arrangements variable incidence, all-moving, T-tail, multi-finned,
butterfly.
Tricycle Landing Gear Configuration numbers of legs, bogeys and wheels.
Nose-Mounted
Most logical position for any single tractor propeller engine aircraft.

P-51 Mustang

Supermarine Spitfire

Advantages include symmetry of layout, good propeller clearance, access and

maintainablity
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Wing-Mounted (Outer Wing)

Many uses:
Large aircraft with propellers, turbojets or turbofans.
For jets/fans, these will be podded and mounted onto under-wing pylons.
For props, these will be mounted directly onto the wing structure.
Advantages include:
Versatility use of alternative engines.
Compact overall layout.
Inertial relief reducing required wing structural mass.
Ease of access for maintenance.
Also several drawbacks and necessary considerations:
Ground clearance may be a problem in which case high wings may be
used (with tall landing gear) or possibly top-wing mounting (e.g. BAe
748) with aerodynamic penalty.
Spanwise location should depend on prop diameter or statistical analysis
of fan burst trajectory and impact on neighbour.
Typical values are 30% and 55% semi-span for a 4-engine design; large
values give big engine-out yaw problems and larger rudder sizes.

Boeing 767

B-52

Lockheed Constellation
Over Wing-Mounted

Shorts SD360

BAe 748

Wing-Mounted (Inner Wing)

Some aircraft have housed the powerplants in the wing root area with significant
structural disadvantages.

B-1 Lancer

DeHavilland Comet

Rear Fuselage-Podded
Used on many moderate sized transport aircraft of the past and also many modern
small business jet aircraft.
Advantages
Reduced engine-out yaw smaller rudder size.
Disadvantages
Rearwards movement of CG stability problems.
Structural acoustic fatigue.

A-10 Thunderbolt

MD-11
Wing-Podded

Fuselage-Podded

Ground Clearance
Internal Noise
Acoustic Fatigue

Possible problem
Good
Fair
Good
Possible problem for wing &
Possible problem for fuselage
flaps
Crash Safety
Good
Possible problem
Propulsive Efficiency
Good
OK if well positioned
Longitudinal Stability
Good
Problems due to aft CG & short tail arm
Tip Stall
Good
Possible problem
Asymmetric Thrust
Poor
Good
Weight
Good
Poor
Engine Maintenance
Good
High off ground
Wing Aerodynamic Efficiency
Problems from cut-outs
Very good

Fuel Feeds to Engines & Wing

Anti-Icing

Good

Ducts and lines through cabin

Internally Housed
Used on many single and twin turbojet/turbofan engine aircraft such as military
trainers and fighters.
Advantages
Compact layout.
Reduced drag.
Disadvantages
Engine removal and maintenance problems.
Structural acoustic fatigue due to jet efflux.
Jet pipe length minimized by moving engine rearwards but this affects
CG, stability and control.
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Panavia Tornado

Sepecat Jaguar

Nose Intake
Used on many early jet fighters with mid-fuselage mounted engines.
Requires use of long inlet ducts and jet pipes gives low flow distortion but high
total pressure losses.
No need for boundary layer diverters.
Occupies large amount of internal volume.
Only small radome may be housed in shock cone centre-body.
English Electric Lightning

MiG-19 Farmer

Side Intake (Below Wing)

Used on the majority of modern high-wing strike and combat aircraft designs.
Leaves the nose area free for radar equipment installation.
The wing is often extended above the intakes to improve high- performance.
Flow diverters are needed to accommodate fuselage boundary layer growth.

Tornado ADV

Dassault Breguet F1 Mirage

Side Intake (Above Wing)

Used on many low-wing design trainer and combat aircraft.
Wings may be used to shield the intakes and reduce the manoeuvring .
Any sharps bends have to be avoided to prevent flow distortions.
Short intake lengths are possible with low overall volume requirements.

T45A Goshawk

BAe Hawk 100

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Ventral Intake
Situated on underside of fuselage - an increasingly common position for high
performance combat aircraft.
Gives very good high- manoeuvrability.
Prone to FOD and debris ingestion.
Complicates nose wheel positioning/stowage.
Restricts carriage of under-fuselage stores.
Low flow distortion and pressure losses into intake.

Eurofighter 2000

F-16 Fighting Falcon

Dorsal Intake
Situated on top-side of fuselage.
Only tends to be used on 3-engine airliners with 3rd engine buried in the rear
fuselage/fin area with a few exceptions.
Gives poor performance at high- due to separated flow ahead of intake.

McDonnell Douglas DC-10

Lockheed L1011 Tristar

Vertical Location of Wing

High Wing
Gives an efficient spanwise lift distribution leading to low lift-induced drag.
Improves lateral static stability.
Preferred for most freight and military transport aircraft:
Low floor line for easy loading & unloading.
Good all-round vehicular access when on ground.
Wing fuel load away from ground when landing with failed landing gear.
Good ground clearance for powerplants, especially props.

Lockheed C-130 Hercules

G-222

Low Wing
Improves lateral manoeuvrability.
Preferred for most passenger transport aircraft:
Wing structure conveniently passes below floor.
Volume free fore and aft of wing structure for cargo holds, luggage and
landing gear stowage.
Minimizes landing gear length and mass.
Wing provides buoyancy when ditching into water and also a platform for
emergency evacuation.

Boeing 777

Boeing 737

Tail Unit (Empennage)

Conventional Layout
Approximately 70% of aircraft in service have a conventional arrangement
comprising separate fixed horizontal stabiliser and vertical fin surfaces for
stability and moving elevator and rudder sections attached to fixed surfaces for
control.
This is the simplest solution & provides optimum overall performance in the
majority of cases.

Conventional Primary Control Surfaces

Variable Incidence Tailplane

Here the forward (main) section of the horizontal surface is not fixed but is
capable of rotation through a small range of angles of attack.
As such, it is generally used to adjust pitch trim rather than using the conventional
elevators.
It is especially useful for countering the effects of significant pitching moment
increments caused by deployment of powerful high lift devices.
Elevators are still used for pitch control.
All-Moving (Slab) Tailplane
Whole of the horizontal tailplane surface is used for both pitch control and trim
(with no separate hinged elevator).
This offers significant advantages at transonic and supersonic speeds when
effectiveness of conventional trailing edge surfaces is dramatically reduced.
Universally adopted for supersonic fighter designs.
Most also use differential movement of opposite sides to improve roll rate (then
known as tailerons).
Powered controls are necessary due to the large control force requirements.
T-Tail
Horizontal tailplane mounted on top of fin.
Often used on large high-mounted swept-wing designs and also smaller low-wing
aircraft.

Lockheed C-5A Galaxy

Beechcraft Duchess
T-Tail - Advantages
Provides substantial end-plating effect to fin, improving its effectiveness and
reducing the fin size requirement.
Lifts the horizontal tail clear of any propwash & the wing wake during cruise
flight, therefore reducing buffet and fatigue.
Allows engines to be mounted on the aft-fuselage, if required.
T-Tail - Disadvantages
Gives a large mass penalty to the empennage due to the higher loading and
aeroelastic effects.
Increased likelihood of deep stall puts tail in wake of stalled wing, making
recovery difficult or even impossible.
Multi-Finned
If fin-sizing exercise results in large single fin dimensions then sometimes
preferable to use two (or more) smaller fins instead.
Allowed Constellation to operate from existing hangars.
Also produces desirable end-plating effect to horizontal tailplane, reducing its
size requirements.
Fins have to be positioned far enough apart so that undesirable mutual
aerodynamic interference effects are not too severe.
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If fins are positioned in slipstream of propellers rudder performance is improved

at low speeds.
Difficult to avoid fin stall at high sideslip angles.
Not generally used nowadays for single-boom layout transport aircraft.
Twin Fin Fighter Aircraft
Twin fins nowadays more associated with supersonic fighters.
More compatible with twin-engine aircraft (F14/F15/F18) than single (F16) due to
engine-out sizing considerations.
Special benefit of supersonic application is that interference effect disappears
providing fin Mach lines do not intersect.
Can also provide infrared shielding of engine exhaust to improve stealth,
especially if canted (F22).
Resultant reduced fin height improves aeroelastic behaviour.

MiG-29 Fulcrum

F-15 Eagle

Butterfly Tail
In this case the conventional tail surfaces are combined into a pair of inclined
surfaces.
The separate roles of the tailplane/elevator and fin/rudder are combined.
Advantages include:
Less interference drag; smaller total surface area; improved stealth
characteristics.
Disadvantages include:
Cross-coupling of stability/control characteristics; handling difficulties;
need for fully automatic flight control system.

Beech Bonanza

Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk

Landing Gear Layout

Tricycle Gear Configuration
The most conventional, comprising:
Pair of main legs behind aircraft CG.
Single nose leg ahead of CG.
Each leg incorporates:
Shock absorber to dissipate vertical landing energy.
Single or two side-by-side wheels or multiple bogie arrangement.
Only main wheels are generally fitted with brakes.
Only the nose wheel is usually steered for ground manoeuvring.
For effective steering, nose leg should support between 6 and 10% of the aircraft
mass.
Provision must be made for attachment and stowage of landing gear units.
Lateral positioning (track) dictated by need to prevent overturning during ground
manoeuvring mainly a function of height of CG, track distance & shock
absorber characteristics.

BAe Hawk

Cessna 172N

Tricycle Gear Configuration Number of Wheels

As the aircraft mass increases, operations from runways of given strength dictate
need for more wheels to spread the load many possible variants:
Two-axle bogie
Three-axle bogie
Three or four main legs
Multiple legs on single axes
Two-Axle Bogie
The main legs are split into two-axle bogies, with usually two wheels per axle.
Such as arrangement is generally necessary if the aircraft mass is between about
90 and 200 tonnes.
It is common to many civil and military transport aircraft types.

Airbus A310

Airbus A330
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Three-Axle Bogie
For very large aircraft (e.g. > 210 tonnes), the load has to be spread even further
one option is to use a 3-axle bogie arrangement.
On the Boeing 777, the extra axle is put in the centre of the bogie.
On the C-5 the extra axle is put side-by-side with the rear axle the aircraft has 28
wheels in total!
Both have main bogie steering to reduce turn radius & tyre scrubbing.

C-5 Galaxy

Boeing 777
Three Main Legs
Some large aircraft use an additional main leg to spread the load, e.g. Airbus A340:
2-wheel nose gear and 3 main gear, each of double-wheel 2-bogie 14 wheels in
total.

Four Main Legs

This will generally be
the case for very large
civil transports (> 300
tonnes) with low
wing designs (e.g.
Boeing 747).
It poses significant
problems for airframe
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attachment & stowage.

Multiple Main Legs with

Single Axles
Good option for
heavy high wing
military transports
with retraction into
fuselage blisters
The Antonov An124 Condor
has 24 wheels two side-byside 2-wheel nose legs and
ten main legs (5 each side),
each with 2 wheels.
Tail Wheel Configuration
Here the two main wheels are located forward of the CG and a tail wheel or skid
provides the third support point.
This is a simpler, lighter and cheaper design than a tricycle layout but has
significant disadvantages:
Difficult ground manoeuvring and take-off/landing due to inhibited
visibility.
This was the norm for many early aircraft but its application is nowadays limited
to simple light aircraft where emphasis is on simplicity and low cost often with
fixed (rather than retractable) legs

Hawker Sea Fury

Curtiss P-6 Hawk

Single Main Gear Leg
Sometimes advantageous to concentrate the main load into a single main leg
rather than two.
For Harrier, tricycle main units difficult to
accommodate in fuselage (because of powerplant)
or wing (because of wing trailing edge controls
and underwing pylons).

GroundHarrier
roll stability obtained from pair of light weight , lightly-loaded
BAe

outriggers, located near to wing tips.

Bicycle Configuration
This is a specialized form of the single main leg configuration but with the rear
leg significantly further back.
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This results in the nose leg carrying a similar proportion of the mass as the rear
leg.
Advantage is an uncluttered wing and long length of available fuselage space (e.g.
for a bomb bay).
Disadvantages are:
Highly loaded nose leg makes ground manoeuvring very difficult.
Specialized landing technique needed , especially if in cross-winds.
Outriggers needed for ground roll stability.
The configuration is not recommended unless there is no viable alternative.

B-52 Stratofortress

Boeing B47E Stratojet

Biplane
The norm for the first 30 years of aviation.
Early aerofoils were very thin requiring external bracing so that biplanes gave
best structural efficiency.
Many penalties of use, especially at higher speeds increased total mass, drag
and aerodynamic interference.
Aerodynamics and materials advances have led to increased wing loadings (W/S)
so that biplanes are mostly redundant nowadays main exception is aerobatics
aircraft where low W/S is an advantage and specialized aircraft such as cropsprayers.

DH-82 Tiger Moth

Pitts S1-S

Unconventional Configurations
Variable Sweep (Swing-Wing)
Design Problem:
High sweep usually needed for transonic/supersonic speed designs but this
affects low speed performance.
Possible solution is to use variable sweep wings.
This gives a better matched performance over a wide speed range and offers an
aircraft multi-role capabilities over subsonic and supersonic speed ranges.
Variable Sweep - Disadvantages
Increased mass over conventional design due to heavy actuation system.
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Increased system complexity and costs.

Increased drag due to interaction between fixed and moving parts of the wing.
Trim and stability/control problems due to movements of aerodynamic centre and
CG

MiG-23

General Dynamics
F-111

F-14 Tomcat
Canard Layout
The conventional aft horizontal tailplane is replaced by a foreplane (or canard)
while the main wing is then moved rearwards for stability purposes.
Two main categories:
Lifting canard canard provides substantial lift as well as longitudinal
trim and control.
Control canard - longitudinal trim and control only.
This is not a new idea the original Wright Flyer was a control canard
configuration
Canard Layout Configurational Advantages
Negligible trim drag penalty, usually a download on the rear tail surface on a
conventional layout.
More rapid pitching manoeuvre response as initial change is in required direction.
Possible layout advantage (e.g. aft-located wing passes behind the cabin).
Better provision for escape from pitch-up (associated with tip-stall on highly
swept wings).
Canard Layout Configurational Disadvantages
Airflow interference from the canard over the main wing surface.
Increased pitching moment effect with wing flap deployment due to large moment
arm so sophisticated high lift devices may not be used with consequent lowspeed performance penalty.
Long-Coupled Canard Layout
Small canard located far enough forward so that interference effects are small.
Particularly suited to long-range supersonic aircraft designs (bombers, transports,
etc.).
Foreplane effect is beneficial for cruise trim drag reduction and at low speed,
particularly for take-off rotation

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Tu-144 Concordski

Rockwell B-70 Valkyrie

Short-Coupled Canard Layout
Foreplane placed just ahead of (& usually above) wing.
Careful location enables lift effectiveness of pair to exceed that of sum of isolated
lifting surfaces.
Most applicable to high agility combat aircraft designs.

Dassault Rafale

Saab Gripen
Canard with Forward Sweep
Rearward sweep usually preferable as it gives better compromise of aerodynamic
characteristics especially stability/control.
Forward swept wings also more prone to aeroleastic divergence overcome with
associated mass penalty.
Method could give overall layout advantages, e.g. by allowing wing carry-through
structure to pass through rear of aircraft and avoid main section.

Su-47 Berkut

Grumman X-29A
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Three Surface Aircraft

Employs both a foreplane and a
tailplane.
Advantages
Stabilizing effect of tailplane.
Favorable trim & control functionality
of foreplane.
Disadvantages
Fuselage mass penalty.
Increased interference drag and also skin
friction due to increased total wetted
surface area.

Piaggio Avanti
Twin-Boom Layout Aircraft
Several possible reasons for being
adopted:
Allows engine to be mounted close to CG particularly pusher-prop types
& early jets.
Over-riding requirement for aircraft to have unrestricted access to rear of
freight hold.
Visibility for rear gunner/bomber crew.
Results in use of twin fins.
Disadvantages include: increased wing mass, increased interference drag and less
usable volume.

Cessna C337
Skymaster

Northrop P-61 Black

Widow

Span-Loaders
Closely related to flying wing designs whereby the payload held in main wing box
structure.
Small central fuselage pod sometimes used to house flight deck and central
services.
Advantages
Spreads the payload across the wing, rather than the fuselage.
This gives inertial relief to the wing structure.
Most of aircraft then comprises wing (with higher lift/drag than
conventional fuselage).
Gives typical 10% reduction in take-off mass.
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Span-Loaders - Disadvantages
Difficult emergency passenger evacuation
procedures.
Structural layout problems.
Fuel location.
Pressurization of wing section.
Increased moments of inertia leading to
poor roll rates.
Complicated flight control system.
Flying Wing (Blended Wing-Body) Layout
Similar to spanloaders optimum
aerodynamic solution sought - wing is
most efficient means of lift generation so
fuselage is dispensed with altogether.
Advantages
As for spanloader inertial relief
of wing gives lower wing structure
mass and lower costs.
Boeing BWB Airliner
Potential for increased passenger
cabin volume and improved
comfort levels.
Major opportunity for using laminar flow technology easier to apply to
wing than a fuselage.
BWB Aircraft - Disadvantages
Passenger wariness of unconventional (more feasible to military & cargo
transports).
Unfamiliar structural layout & design.
Complex aerodynamic interference effects.
Special Configurational Issues
An aircrafts specifications and requirements may include some special provision
which could then have a dominant influence over the resultant configuration.
These include:
Short Take-Off & Vertical Landing (STOVL).
Stealth.
Waterborne Operations.
STOL & STOVL Aircraft
Short Take-Off (& Vertical) Landing Aircraft.
Two classes of military aircraft sometimes have a need for STOL or STOVL
capabilities.
Freight.
Combat.
Military Freight STOL Airlifters
Often required to operate to and from airstrips of short length and poor surface
strength.
No major effect upon configuration selection (unless tilt-rotor/wing technology
adopted) but increased emphasis on:
High installed thrust.
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Complex high lift devices and wing technology.

Low tyre pressures.
Several civil variants also developed with perceived need.

DHC Dash 7
Kawasaki NAL Asuka

Breguet 941
Boeing YC-14

Canadair CL-84 Dynavert

Vertol VZ-2A

Bell-Boeing V-22
Osprey

Bell XV-15

STOVL Combat Aircraft

For vertical landing the available vertical thrust component must exceed the
landing weight.
Logical to also use this component for short take-off.
STOVL thrust component provided by downward deflection of exhaust gases of
forward flight propulsion unit(s).
Impractical to locate this thrust component immediately below CG at all times so
additional thrust provision needed for balance.
STOVL Combat Aircraft Further Comments
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Three standard methods available for providing vertical thrust component:

Vectored bypass flow.
Separate vertical lift engine.
Remotely driven lift engines (using main powerplant as energy source).
All methods require separate low-speed control capability, usually using reaction
jets supplied with bleed air from main engine compressor.
STOVL Fighter Vectored Bypass Flow
RR Pegasus engine has 4 nozzles, each rotating to vector efflux as required rear
two exhaust hot gases and front two exhaust colder bypass air from behind fan.
Results in compact system, though bulky and also has to be located about aircraft
CG.
Several thrust augmentation methods are available (e.g. plenum chamber burning
where fuel is burnt in bypass air) but cause problems (e.g. hot gas ingestion &
ground erosion).

Rolls Royce Pegasus

BAe Harrier

STOVL Fighter Vertical Lift Engines

Uses one or more dedicated lift
engines in addition to deflected
thrust from cruise engine.
Allows engine to be located more
conveniently to aft of aircraft with
lift engines forwards, giving more
design flexibility.
Disadvantage is extra mass of lift
engine worthless in forward flight
Yak-141 Freestyle
mode.
STOVL Fighter Remotely Driven Lift
Fans
Lift fan driven remotely from main cruise
engine by either mechanical shaft drive (as
in X-35 JSF) or gas drive.
Mechanical drive places restrictions
on fuselage layout.
Compressed gas drive is bulky and
relatively inefficient.
Total effective fuselage volume likely to be
Lockheed Martin X-35 JSF
more than for other two possible methods
Stealth
Increasingly important for modern combat aircraft designs.
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Final configuration depends heavily on overall priority of stealth against

performance.

F-22: high performance

levels with stealth
B-2: Stealth is
primary design

Stealth
General Observations
driver
Foreplanes best avoided.
Internal powerplants & weapons.
Intakes with long curved ducts.
Exhausts must be shielded.
Avoid surfaces positioned at right angles to each other (e.g. use inclined fins).
Minimize discontinuities in shape/surface.
Surface edges parallel to each other.
Difficulties with cockpit transparencies use of
unmanned vehicles advantageous.
Waterborne Aircraft
Very common in the early days of aviation.
Can operate from anywhere with a large stretch of
reasonably calm water.
Became less popular due to:
More airfields available after WW2.
Trend for using higher wing loadings Results in higher take-off & landing
DeHavilland Beaver
speeds and high water resistance forces.
Use nowadays restricted to small aircraft operating in
coastal regions or in remote locations with many lakes
& rivers.
Two basic categories float planes & flying boats.
Float Planes
Conventional landing gear replaced by large floats.
Invariably propeller-driven.
Usually direct conversions from land-based types.
Consolidated OA-10 Catalina
Usually only applicable to small aircraft (12 tonnes
max).
Air drag of floats is high and gives large tail download
trim requirement.
Flying Boats
Usually larger than float planes.
Fuselage used as a hull for waterborne operations.
Wing tip floats or fuselage sponsons used to provide waterborne roll stability.
Some types also have conventional retractable landing gear and are then
amphibious.

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