The INTERCOOLING PROBLEM in AIRPLANE DESIGN

A DISCUSSION of the aircraft-engine charge-air cooling problem is given here from the point of view of the airframe designer.

Many of the factors which enter into the selection of the type and capacity of charge-air cooling installations are difficult to subject to quantitative analysis. Among these are problems of simplicity, maintenance, accessibility, and arrangement of the engine installation. In general, however, the difficulty of installation of the charge-air system is out of proportion to the core size. The weight increase due to the system, for instance, is in the neighborhood of five times the weight of the air-to-air intercooler core.

The use of a liquid-to-air aftercooler system as opposed to an air-to-air intercooler system shows promise only in applications with liquid-cooled engines where the separation of the ultimate cooling unit from the rest of the installation is a definite arrangement advantage.