Weight Estimation of Novel Aircraft Configurations in Early Design Phase

Initial Weight estimation based on the Top Level Aircraft Requirements, hereon referred to as TLAR, is one of the key points to begin with the design of any aircraft. A quick and accurate estimation at the initial stages allows to achieve optimal design solution in fewer steps. This has more relevance in a setup like DOE, i.e., Design of Experiments, where the idea is to explore the complete design space and choose the best solution. At present, there are techniques available to estimate the weight from TLAR for conventional tube and wing configurations with JetA1 fuel. These techniques are primarily based on trends and empirical equations that have been derived from historical data of aircrafts previously built. A lot of new aircraft concepts have been (eg: VTOL) and are being (eg - BWB, H2 as fuel, OpenFan Propulsion etc.) considered for the commercial future. Currently, there are no standard methods established to estimate their weights due to the scarcity of historical data. The primary aim of this study has been to develop top-level weight estimation functions for novel aircraft concepts. These functions are intended to provide approximate values for conducting quick and resource-efficient feasibility analyses in the preliminary design phase. Four aircraft configurations have been explored in this study: Configuration 1: (Conventional) Powerplant: Jet A1 combustion Fuel placement: Inside wings & centre wingbox Engine placement: Under wings Configuration 2: (Conventional) Powerplant: SAF combustion Fuel placement: Inside wings and centre wingbox Engine placement: Under wings Configuration 3: (Novel) Powerplant: Cryogenic LH2 combustion Fuel placement: LH2 tanks at aft fuselage Engine placement: Under wings Configuration 4: (Novel) Powerplant: Cryogenic LH2 combustion Fuel placement: Podded LH2 fuel tanks placed under wings Engine placement: Under wings The results of this study are in the form of weight estimation functions that provide the overall weight, based on the input parameters, for any given aircraft concept in its initial design phases. These weight functions have been verified by using classical configuration inputs and validated with the real aircraft trends.