Abstract:
During the 1970 academic year the students in Aircraft
Design worked on the design of a vertical take off and
landing airliner. The aircraft is intended to be capable
of carrying up to 118 passengers over stage lengths of
500 n.miles. The maximum cruise speed is Mach 0.83 at an
altitude of approximately 20,000 ft and the predicted take
off weight is 125,000 lbs. Vertical take off is achieved
by using 12 fan lift engines, each of 1.500 lb thrust,
which are based on the Rolls Royce RB 202 design. The lift
engines are housed in two large nacelles which are mounted
on the high, sweptback wing. The installed thrust/weight
ratio of 1.4 makes allowance for hot and high operation,
control requirements, and lift engine failure. An unusual
feature of the design is the location of the two propulsion
engines on either of the vertical fins.
Some indication was gained of the penalties associated
with this type of aircraft, but the weighing of these
against the realisable advantages was outside the scope of
the work.
