Aircraft Concept Design Performance Visualization Using an Energy-Maneuverability Presentation

The aircraft conceptual design process requires the engineer to select the overall vehicle size, aerodynamic configuration, wing loading and thrust loading to meet specific performance requirements. Plotting common steady-state aircraft cruise and loiter performance metrics in “Energy-Maneuverability” format (as a function of Mach number and flight altitude) provides a method to visualize performance and facilitate trade studies. This paper illuminates the utility of this method of data presentation. It depicts a series of “sky map” plots useful to understand steady-state performance. It also presents trade studies of notional aerodynamic performance as a function of changing fundamental configuration design variables: thrust loading, wing loading and vehicle wing configuration. This paper demonstrates how this visualization technique helps the engineer identify parameters that influence both the “best operating” flight conditions and the point performance at specific aircraft flight conditions.