AER 615 Lecture 15: AER615NotesMinFuelMission
15 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
In considering the overall mission for an aircraft with respect to fuel consumption concerns, one must also consider the climb and descent portions of the flight as shown by. 1, in conjunction with the principal cruise segment (for now, assume fuel consumed for takeoff, loiter and landing is relatively fixed). For longer trips, one can likely choose in isolation the best cruise airspeed vmr or flight mach number mamr for maximum range or synonymously minimum fuel consumption in going from a to b. Madd if a jet airplane flying at a higher altitude. Vcr , meaning that maximum-range conditions above 11 km altitude require that one begin increasing cl from the nominal cl,mr above progressively as one gains further altitude, towards the higher cl,md (maximum lift-to-drag). One observes that the tradeoff is a function of w/(p @cl) as the aircraft further loses weight in the cruise segment, until a threshold altitude is reached, above which, cruise performance worsens.
