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Airframe Design for "Silent Aircraft"

2007; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2514/6.2007-453

James Hileman, Z. S. Spakovszky, Mark Drela, Matthew Sargeant,

Acoustic Wave Phenomena Research

The noise goal of the Silent Aircraft Initiative, a collaborative effort between industry, academia and government agencies led by Cambridge University and MIT, demands an airframe design with noise as a prime design variable. This poses a number of design challenges and the necessary design philosophy inherently cuts across multiple disciplines involving aerodynamics, structures, acoustics, mission analysis and operations, and dynamics and control. This paper discusses a novel design methodology synthesizing first principles analysis and high-fidelity simulations, and presents the conceptual design of an aircraft with a calculated noise level of 62 dBA at the airport perimeter. This is near the background noise in a well populated area, making the aircraft imperceptible to the human ear on takeoff and landing. The all-lifting airframe of the conceptual aircraft design also has the potential for a reduced fuel burn of 124 passenger-miles per gallon, a 25% improvement compared to existing commercial aircraft. A key enabling technology in this conceptual design is the aerodynamic shaping of the airframe centerbody which is the main focus of this paper. Design requirements and challenges are identified and the resulting aerodynamic design is discussed in depth. The paper concludes with suggestions for continued research on enabling technologies for quiet commercial aircraft.