Empennage Sizing Statistics for 30 Aircraft with Tail Lever Arm Percentages

A statistical analysis of 30 aircraft of differing dimensions provides average tail lever arm percentages relative to fuselage length. The project, authored by Jascha McDavid from Universität Hamburg, graphically analyzed three-view drawings to find these values, with a reported average deviation of about 1% from exact data for a small validation subset. It further calculates and discusses tail volume coefficients using the graphically determined values.

Use Cases

• Estimating horizontal tail lever arms based on fuselage length using the reported average of 46.2%.
• Estimating vertical tail lever arms based on fuselage length using the reported average of 41.8%.
• Comparing tail lever arm percentages between aircraft with wing-mounted engines (configuration A) and fuselage-mounted engines (configuration B).
• Calculating tail volume coefficients using the graphically determined lever arms and other geometrical data mentioned.
• Validating graphical analysis methods for aircraft design against exact data from literature.

Strengths

• Includes statistical results from 30 aircraft, providing a basis for comparison.
• Reports specific average percentages: 46.2% for horizontal tail lever arm and 41.8% for vertical tail lever arm.
• Validates the graphical method with exact data, showing an average deviation of about 1%.
• Distinguishes between two engine configurations (A and B), providing separate percentage values for each.

Limitations

• Row count and specific column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The dataset's origin from paperswithcode may reflect a bias towards academic or research-focused aircraft models.

Provenance

Source

Universität Hamburg

Collection Method

Graphical analysis of three-view drawings and literature review for validation.