Aeroplane design studies: bpropeller turbine and pure jet powered general purpose transport aircraft (academic years 1963 and 1965)

The recent interest in the air bus conception of air travel is reflected in the aircraft chosen for study by the students in the Department of Aircraft Design during the 1963 and 1965 academic years. The first study was based upon the use of four propeller turbine engines to power an aircraft capable of carrying up to 40,000 lb. of payload over short stage lengths. Emphasis was placed on the need for operations with mixed passenger and freight loads and the fuselage layout incorporates two decks, the lower one of which is designed as a freighthold with nose loading doors. The second study was similar except that four wing mounted pure jet engines replaced the propeller turbines of the earlier design. The cruising speed is thus some 50 per cent higher with a Mach number limitation of 0.8. The two deck fuselage layout is retained, but with a rear loading door for the freighthold, and the wing has 28° of leading edge sweepback . An initial economic comparison of the two aircraft revealed that when the aircraft are operated over 250 n. mile stage lengths the direct operating costs of the propeller turbine powered design are some 20 per cent less than those of the pure jet version. This is mainly due to the much lower first cost of the simpler aircraft.