Weight and Balance

Weight and Balance#

This section presents weight and balance analysis for the example airplane. This involves more detailed analysis as compared to initial weight estimation, where empty weight was directly computed using historical data. Specifically, weight of major structural components are computed using detailed statistical methods, which are later on added to compute empty weight. These weights are later also used for computing the CG of the airplane in different scenarios such as with fuel and without fuel. This is finally used to plot the CG travel diagram to visualize how CG moves as the airplane is loaded/unloaded. It is important to estimate the weights as accurately as possible at this stage of design since it will affect the performance and cost estimation. Refer to lecture notes, Raymer Chapter 15, Roskam Part 2 Chapter 10, Roskam Part 5 Chapters 2-7, and Nicolai and Carichner Chapter 20 for more details.

Following topics are covered in this section:

  1. Component weight estimation

  2. CG estimation

  3. CG travel diagram