Fuselage Design

Passengers
Crew members
Internal
considerations

Fuel
Landing gear

Fuselage Design
Armaments
External
considerations

Drag

Internal volume considerations

Passenger Requirements
Crew Requirements
Fuel Storage Requirements
Internal Engines and Air Inlets
Wing Attachments
Landing Gear Placement
Armament Placement

Cross-Section Shape
Most fuselage cross-sections are relatively
circular in shape.
This is done for two reasons
1. By eliminating corners, the flow will not
separate at moderate angles of attack or
sideslip
2. When the fuselage is pressurized, a circular
fuselage can resist the loads with tension
stresses, rather than the more severe
bending loads that arise on non-circular
shapes

Many fuselages are not circular, however. Aircraft with unpressurized

cabins often incorporate non-circular, even rectangular cabins

 Sometimes substantial amounts of space

would be wasted with a circular fuselage when
specific arrangements of passenger seats and
cargo containers must be accommodated.
In such cases, elliptical or double-bubble
arrangements can used

Boeing 747

Passenger Requirements

The size and shape of subsonic commercial

aircraft are generally determined by
1. The number of passengers
2. Seating arrangements
3. Cargo requirements.

Typical values for seating arrangement

 The fuselage diameter are decided based on

this seating arrangement
Typical passenger height and weight has to be
considered for conceptual design phases
The cargo for each passenger has to be decided
in advance so that we can allot some volume
for each passenger and decide our cargo
capacity

A 380 Fuselage
The cross section of the A380 departs from the double-bubble
concept with a rather eccentric ellipse

Seating arrangement of various aircrafts

lower deck cargo containers

lower deck containers

 The smaller containers are suitable for smaller

commercial/transport aircraft. such as the
Boeing 727.
The larger ones, for example the LD-3, are
commonly used on larger commercial aircraft

Smaller, short-range aircraft do not use cargo

containers, but rather have space only for bulk
cargo with a volume that is based on 6-8 f3 per
passenger

 Passenger aircraft also have requirements for

the number, placement and type of emergency
exits in the event of a survivable accident

Crew Requirements

How many crew you need ?

What is their cabin size?
Pilots view obstruction (Military & passenger
aircrafts)
Overnose angle, over side angle
Calculating over nose angle

Crew Requirements
The size of the crew compartment will vary
depending on the aircraft type

Long range
transport /
passenger aircraft

Should
accommodate 2 to
4 crew members

 crew compartment have a length of

approximately 150 inches for four crew
members
130 inches for three crew members
100 inches for two crew members
Forward section of the fuselage design
depends on the pilot's view
The design parameter related to it is OVER
NOSE ANGLE

 Over nose angle critically plays a role during

landing phase.

Concorde and TU 144 has some special

forward fuselage design

The over-nose angle, overnose. is defined as the

angle between a horizontal line through the
pilot's eye, down to the point of the highest
visual obstruction

 Military/commercial transport and passenger

aircraft should have an unobstructed viewing
angle of at least 20 above the horizon
Military combat aircraft should have at least a
120 unobstructed upward viewing angle
Transparency grazing angle
Smallest angle between a line of vision of the
pilot and the cockpit window or windscreen.
If this angle becomes too small, the visibility
through the window can become substantially
reduced or distorted. The recommended
minimum grazing angle is 30

over-nose angle depends on

1. Landing approach angle, approach. and the
2. landing approach velocity, V50

V50 - velocity at an elevation of 50 feet,

V50 1.3 Vs (Vs - stall velocity)
. Empirical relation for the over-nose angle

 overside - It is the unobstructed viewing angle

from a horizontal line through the pilot's eye
down to the highest visual obstruction formed
by the side of the fuselage

The shape of the fuselage in side view is

determined based on
Visibility requirements for the cockpit
Ground clearance of the tail cone
Usually aft-fuselage upsweep is required to
provide the capability of rotating to high angles
of attack on the ground (Landing & Take off)

Fuel Storage Requirements

The volume required to hold this fuel can be
allocated to the fuselage or wing
Factors affecting fuel storage location :
Location of the center of mass with respect to
the center of lift, thus affecting the static stability
The vulnerability of crew and passengers in the
event of an uncontrolled landing
The vulnerability of the fuel in combat aircraft
caused by enemy fire

 Aircraft is stable when centre of mass is in front of

the centre of lift or Neutral point has to be further
than centre of gravity
Hence if fuel is stored in the fuselage, it has to be
before the wing attachment point
The actual volume that is available in locations in
the fuselage or wing depends on the type of fuel tank
used
Types of fuel tank
1. Discrete
2. Bladder
3. Integral

Discrete tanks
Generally used for small general aviation
aircraft
They consist of separately manufactured
containers that mount in the aircraft
In the wing, these are often mounted at the
inboard span portion, near the leading edge.
In the fuselage they are generally placed just
behind the engine and above the pilots feet.

Bladder fuel tanks

They are thick rubber bags that are placed into

cavities in the wing or fuselage.

This feature improves the aircraft survivability

in the event of an uncontrolled landing or
enemy fire

Bladder fuel tanks

Integral tanks
These are cavities within the airframe structure
that are sealed to form fuel tanks
Because integral tanks are more prone to
leaking compared to the other two types, they
should not be located near air inlet ducts or
engines

Internal Engines and Air Inlets

Engines are either mounted inside the fuselage
(mostly fighter) or over the wing (all
commercial airliners)
If the engine mounting is inside the fuselage
then an appropriate fuselage design has to be
done.
It can be done only after selecting the engine
size (Diameter and length)

 At this stage, the best approach is to rely on

suitable comparison aircraft.
For internally mounted jet engines, the air
delivery system is an integral element
The type and geometry of the inlet will
determine the pressure loss and uniformity of
the air supplied to the engine.
These in turn affect the installed thrust of the
engine and fuel consumption
The types of air inlets depend on the operating
Mach number

 A first estimate can come from empirical data

that indicate that the diameter of the air inlet
be the same as that of the engine compressor
face

Length of the inlet = 60 percent of the engine

length.

Wing Attachments
The position where Wing section attached to the
fuselage is called as wing carry through
The wing carry-through occupies a large volume
where it passes through the fuselage
As we know the root chord, we can find the volume
required for the carry through in the fuselage

Landing Gear Placement

In most aircraft, the fuselage needs to accommodate all
or some parts of the landing gear when it is retracted
Therefore, its placement and volume requirements need
to be considered in the design of the fuselage
The largest portion of the landing gear for which space
has to be allotted in the fuselage is the landing gear
wheels
The size of the wheels is proportional to the percentage
of the aircraft weight that they hold.
Typically, the tires on the main landing gear carry
approximately 90 percent of the aircraft weight. The
other 10 percent is carried by the nose gear

 At this point in the design, the size of the main

landing gear wheels can be estimated using a
statistical fit of historic data

weight on each wheel of the main landing

gear

 After determining the size of the wheels on the

main gear, the size of the nose wheel can be
assumed to be approximately 40 percent
smaller
An exception is for the quadricycle
arrangement, where the nose wheel is typically
the same size as the main wheels

Armament Placement
Essentially a requirement for a fighter aircraft
The number and size of bombs and armament are
generally decided in the initial design proposal when
the mission requirements are set.
Weapons carried outside leads to extra drag
The lowest drag design has the weapons internally
mounted
In most cases, this requires them to be located inside
the fuselage, in a weapons bay.
In this instance, provisions need to be made in the
design of the fuselage to have the necessary volume
and exterior access

AERODYNAMIC
CONSIDERATIONS

Passengers
Crew members
Internal
considerations

Fuel
Landing gear

Fuselage Design
Armaments
External
considerations

Drag

Fuselage Fineness Ratio

Fuselage = Circular conic sections at the front

and rear + centre cylinder section
fineness ratio = Maximum diameter / length of the fuselage

Effect of fineness ratio on a subsonic body

Form
drag Cp min

Viscous
drag Cf

Over all
drag
Cd0

The graph shows the solid curve corresponds to the overall drag.
The dashed curve corresponds to the viscous drag.
At any value of the fineness ratio, the difference between the values of C Do and C F
corresponds to the pressure drag.

An infinitely slender body (d/ I = 0) has a drag that is dominated by

viscous forces. Conversely,
A spherical body (d / l = 1) has a drag that is nearly all pressure drag,
due to flow separation

 The payload requirements are a more

important design driver, and smaller fineness
ratios from 0.08 to 0.125 are used

Fineness ratio for various subsonic aircrafts

Effect of fineness ratio on a supersonic body

Wave
drag Cw

Viscous
drag Cf

Over all
drag
Cd0

In supersonic aircraft, the overall drag coefficient, CD0 is made up of

contributions from the viscous drag, with coefficient CF, and the
supersonic wave drag, with coefficient CDw
Wave drag is a kind of pressure drag only

Fineness
ratio

D /l = 1
Blunt body

D /l ~ 0
Slender body

Wave drag
predominant

Viscous drag
predominant

 In general for supersonic flight, the overall drag

coefficient on a slender body is 2-3 times higher
than for subsonic Flight.
For a blunt body, approaching a sphere(d/l = 1),
the overall drag is predominantly wave (bow
shock) drag.
The rise in wave drag as d / l increases is
particularly severe.
Only with extremely slender bodies (dl I ~ 0) is
the wave drag negligible to the point that the
viscous drag becomes dominant.

 optimum fineness ratio exists. In this case, it

occurs at d/l = 0.07
Aerodynamic drag is the design driver for
long-range supersonic aircraft

 For short or intermediate range supersonic

aircraft that operate about 50 percent of the
time at subsonic speeds, it is necessary to
compromise on the fuselage fineness ratio.
Fineness ratios of 0.125 to 0.1 are most
typically used.