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For most unpowered aircraft, the maximum flight time is variable, limited by available daylight hours, aircraft design (performance), weather conditions, aircraft potential energy, and pilot endurance. Therefore, the range equation can only be calculated exactly for powered aircraft. It will be derived for both propeller and jet aircraft.
The thrust-to-weight ratio and lift-to-drag ratio are the two most important parameters in determining the performance of an aircraft. The thrust-to-weight ratio varies continually during a flight. Thrust varies with throttle setting, airspeed , altitude , air temperature, etc. Weight varies with fuel burn and payload changes.
Energy–maneuverability theory is a model of aircraft performance. It was developed by Col. John Boyd, a fighter pilot, and Thomas P. Christie, a mathematician with the United States Air Force, [1] and is useful in describing an aircraft's performance as the total of kinetic and potential energies or aircraft specific energy.
Aircraft manufacturers will publish performance data in an aircraft flight manual, concerning the behaviour of the aircraft under various circumstances, such as different speeds, weights, and air temperatures, pressures, & densities. [5] [6] Performance data is information pertaining to takeoff, climb, range, endurance, descent, and landing. [1]
The natural outcome of this requirement is a wing design that is thin and wide, which has a low thickness-to-chord ratio. At lower speeds, undesirable parasitic drag is largely a function of the total surface area, which suggests using a wing with minimum chord, leading to the high aspect ratios seen on light aircraft and regional airliners ...
The load factor, and in particular its sign, depends not only on the forces acting on the aircraft, but also on the orientation of its vertical axis. During straight and level flight, the load factor is +1 if the aircraft is flown "the right way up", [2]: 90 whereas it becomes −1 if the aircraft is flown "upside-down" (inverted). In both ...
Lift and drag are the two components of the total aerodynamic force acting on an aerofoil or aircraft. In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air.
The relevance for gas turbine-powered aircraft is the use of a secondary jet of air with a propeller or, for jet engine performance, the introduction of the bypass engine. The overall efficiency of the jet engine is thermal efficiency multiplied by propulsive efficiency ( η o = η t h η p r {\displaystyle \eta _{o}=\eta _{th}\eta _{pr}} ).