A Computer Operational Analysis of AG-Plane Operation to Evaluate Design Parameters

770480

02/01/1977

Event
National Business Aircraft Meeting and Engineering Display
Authors Abstract
Content
Field studies of agricultural airplane operations indicated that airplane design parameters significantly affected aircraft productivity. Limitation of material discharge rate, while still securing uniform distribution pattern of ejected material, appeared to be a serious factor in restricting markets and holding down productivity.
A computer program was written to explore possible gains from optimizing design parameters in a given market, to determine improvements which would result from extending the range of design parameters, and to study the effects of different operating procedures. The program actually “flies” an airplane through all steps of a mission. A mission is defined as a complete working day from preparation for first take-off to shutting down after last landing. All flight operations are defined in terms of airplane specifications and design parameters.
Comparison of productivity and profitability of airplanes currently being used was made with paper designs, some of which incorporated features as boundary layer control and high rate material ejection. Productivity, in terms of acres covered per operating hour, and profits show definite improvements with expanded design parameters.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/770480
Pages
20
Citation
Razak, K., and Snyder, M., "A Computer Operational Analysis of AG-Plane Operation to Evaluate Design Parameters," SAE Technical Paper 770480, 1977, https://doi.org/10.4271/770480.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 1, 1977
Product Code
770480
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English