An Investigation of Some Problems in the Design of Tailless Airplanes

Author: Powell, Walter Brown

Year: 1940

Degree: Master's thesis

Advisors: Millikan, Clark Blanchard; Sears, William Rees

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/PZW5-2085

Abstract

Some problems in the design of tailless airplanes are discussed. The conditions essential to the flight of such airplanes are determined, and a survey of methods of calculating the aerodynamic characteristics of plain wings and wings with flaps and ailerons deflected is presented. The effect of adding a fuselage and ring nacelles to a wing to form a practical airplane is discussed.

Consideration is given to the problem of damping of longitudinal oscillations, and a method of calculating the damping in pitch of a sweptback wing alone is presented.

An example is carried through to illustrate the application of all the material covered in the paper. In all respects considered, the tailless airplane is shown to be comparable to normal type airplanes.

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