Design and Optimization of Tandem Wing Aircraft 2023-01-5154
A tandem aircraft configuration has two wings placed one behind the other
longitudinally, with no dedicated horizontal stabilizer. Since there are two
wings, high lift is obtained but also at the cost of additional structural
weight and drag. In this article, a methodology is proposed to design a tandem
aircraft configuration and depict the design process of the radio-controlled
model. Flight test is conducted with the model to verify the stability and
predicted performance. Aerodynamic optimization is conducted by using
computational fluid dynamics to understand the effects of downwash from the
front wing to the aft wing. In the end, a conventional aircraft is conceptually
designed, which uses the same power plant configuration and the predicted
performance is obtained. The predicted performance results of the tandem
aircraft and the conventional aircraft are compared and the results are
obtained. Compared to conventional aircraft tandem wing configuration found
13.5% shorter wingspan and 40% shorter take off roll.