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The recent interest in the air bus conception of air travel is reflected
in the aircraft chosen for study by the students in the Department of Aircraft
Design during the 1963 and 1965 academic years.
The first study was based upon the use of four propeller turbine engines
to power an aircraft capable of carrying up to 40,000 lb. of payload over
short stage lengths. Emphasis was placed on the need for operations with
mixed passenger and freight loads and the fuselage layout incorporates two
decks, the lower one of which is designed as a freighthold with nose loading
doors.
The second study was similar except that four wing mounted pure jet
engines replaced the propeller turbines of the earlier design. The cruising
speed is thus some 50 per cent higher with a Mach number limitation of 0.8.
The two deck fuselage layout is retained, but with a rear loading door for the
freighthold, and the wing has 28° of leading edge sweepback .
An initial economic comparison of the two aircraft revealed that when
the aircraft are operated over 250 n. mile stage lengths the direct operating
costs of the propeller turbine powered design are some 20 per cent less than
those of the pure jet version. This is mainly due to the much lower first
cost of the simpler aircraft. |
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