Week 6

Maximum and Minimum Velocities

Maximum Velocity
Maximum velocity
Calculated from the comparison of maximum power available and
the power required
Intersection of the two curves maximum velocity for straight
and level flight
For propeller-driven aircraft

Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999

Maximum Velocity
For jet-propelled aircraft

Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999

Effects of Drag Divergence

Drag polar used in previous analysis does not account for the large
drag rise near Mach 1
Assume a conventional, subsonic drag polar
Ignore the significance of drag divergence effects
Lower or higher maximum velocity?

Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999

Considering Drag Divergence

Assume a sharp, linear increase of drag after drag divergence Mach
number for the aircraft
Usually given the estimated linear slope construct the linear drag
increase by finding values for at least two points

D DDD
dD
=
V VDD dV

D=

dD
(V VDD )
dV

Given maximum thrust available, maximum velocity can be

calculated as follows:

TA,max

TA,max
dD
(
)
=
Vmax VDD Vmax =
+ VDD
dV
dD

dV

Alternative method by Raymer

Read textbook pg. 247 to 249

Minimum Velocity

Does the low speed intersection between power available and power
required curves determine the minimum velocity at steady level for a
given altitude?
It may or may not it is likely that the aircraft encounter stall
before slowing down to this velocity
Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999

Stall Velocity
Lift coefficient vs. angle of attack curve
Qualitatively similar variation for airfoil and whole aircraft
At stall drag coefficient increases significantly and loss of lift
Lift-to-drag ratio significantly decreases
Cause of crashes in earlier flights
In stall
Lift coefficient doesnt go
to zero after a while, it
recovers and can even
exceed maximum lift
coefficient
But drag is too high so
the second maximum lift
coefficient is not of great
interest
Use the first local maximum
lift coefficient
Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999

Stall Velocity
For steady, level flight at a given altitude:

L =W =

1
V2 SC L
2

Vstall =

2 W 1
S C L ,max

Depends on altitude, (W/S), maximum lift coefficient

Stall velocity increases with:
Lower air density higher altitude
High (W/S) high speed aircraft have high (W/S)
Low maximum lift coefficient
High lift devices used for takeoff and landing but not cruise
Low stall velocity is preferred

Stall Velocity
Effects of sweep angle and high lift devices

If stall velocity is larger than minimum velocity obtained from the

intersection of the power curves
Stall velocity is the minimum velocity for the aircraft
Check both before making your conclusion!
Aircraft Performance and Design, John D. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, 1999