Aerodynamics

This section performs aerodynamic analysis for the example airplane. Specifically, it estimates lift-curve slope \(C_{L_\alpha}\) in linear region, zero-lift drag \(C_{D_0}\) using drag build-up method, and finally plots drag polar (\(C_L\) vs \(C_D\)) for the example airplane. The maximum \(L/D\) is also highlighted on the plot. Note that all these calculations are performed for clean configuration i.e. no high-lift devices are utilized. Refer to lecture notes, Chapter 12 in Raymer and Chapter 13 in Nicolai and Carichner for further details. This section uses classical (semi-empirical) methods for aerodynamic estimation of the airplane. If required, one can use software tools such as XFLR5 and AVL for analysis. Always remember to do a sanity check for your estimates by comparing with real aircraft data. Following sub-sections are covered in this section:

1. Lift-curve slope

2. Parasitic (Zero-lift) drag

3. Induced drag and Drag polar