Influence of electric wing tip propulsion on the sizing of the vertical stabilizer and rudder in preliminary aircraft design

Abstract

During preliminary aircraft design, the vertical tail sizing is conventionally conducted by the use of volume coefficients. These represent a statistical approach using existing configurations’ correlating parameters, such as wing span and lever arm, to size the empennage. For a more detailed analysis with regard to control performance, the vertical tail size strongly depends on the critical loss of thrust assessment. This consideration increases in complexity for the design of the aircraft using wing tip propulsion systems. Within this study, a volume coefficient-based vertical tail plane sizing is compared to handbook methods and the possibility to reduce the necessary vertical stabilizer size is assessed with regard to the position of the engine integration and their interconnection. Two configurations, with different engine positions, of a hybrid-electric 19-seater aircraft, derived from the specifications of a Beechcraft 1900D, are compared. For both configurations two wiring options are assessed with regard to their impact on aircraft level for a partial loss of thrust. The preliminary aircraft design tool MICADO is used to size the four aircraft and propulsion system configurations using fin volume coefficients. These results are subsequently amended by handbook methods to resize the vertical stabilizer and update the configurations. The results in terms of, e.g., operating empty mass and mission fuel consumption, are compared to the original configurations without the optimized vertical stabilizer. The findings support the initial idea that the connection of the electric engines on the wing tips to their respective power source has a significant effect on the resulting torque around the yaw axis and the behaviour of the aircraft in case of a power train failure, as well as on the empty mass and trip fuel. For only one out of the four different aircraft designs and wiring configurations investigated it was possible to decrease the fin size, resulting in a 53.7% smaller vertical tail and a reduction in trip fuel of 4.9%, compared to the MICADO design results for the original fin volume coefficient.