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How to Calculate the range of Aircraft that we made?

5,427 BlackGearCompany  2.2 years ago

Help

Thank you

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    You can get a ballpark estimate.
    .
    Setting your fuel to ~5-10% with dead weight to account for rest of the fuel you would usually carry, you can determine how much is spent on takeoffs and climb. Same can be done for initial cruise, but keep in mind your mass will decrease as fuel is spent - the result is not very accurate for cruise. Remove the dead weight and do the same for landing. A few simple fractions to deal with and you can essentially understand how your total fuel consumption and range will look like. It’s not accurate but it’s good enough.
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    Now, there’s a much more interesting way, and much more accurate, taught in classes. If I remember correctly it’s somewhere in the first 4 chapters of Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach by D.P. Raymer. You can find the textbook probably at your local library. Interesting stuff. ISBN-13: 978-1624104909

    +2 2.2 years ago
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    29.6k 32

    If you're on pc you could use the range test map

    +2 2.2 years ago
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    with the fingers

    +2 2.2 years ago
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    44.9k DerekSP

    @NochAviation There is no way to do it properly

    +2 2.2 years ago
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    oh no... i'm still confused, i try using google translator to translate the english to indonesia, but i'm still confused. Thank you very much for helping me, i appreciate it @HuskyDynamics01 @DerekSP @IceCraftGaming. i'm gonna figure it out when i got time

    +2 2.2 years ago
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    44.9k DerekSP

    You can't in any easy way, since even your altitude determines your range. You would have to approximate your aircraft into a single object with a certain lift, drag, weight, then plot range against altitude, then how do you handle if the plane changes altitude mid flight? What about the center of mass shifting as you drain fuel, it can pitch the plane up or down which will change its drag. What about wind etc. Best you can do is just an approximation using the tip from @HuskyDynamics01 comment

    +5 2.2 years ago
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    35.1k Icey21

    trial and error

    +3 2.2 years ago
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    Well, there's a few ways. You can spawn in something stationary as an AI, start next to it, and fly until you run out of gas, then check how far you are from it (works because the Air-to-Air radar does not have the 10-mile range limit of the Air-to-Ground mode).

    Alternatively (if, for example, you're making something that has a very long range), you can fly until your fuel drops by a certain percentage, 10% for example. If you can find the distance you travel with a certain percentage of fuel, you can easily calculate the approximate total range of the aircraft.

    +2 2.2 years ago