Effect of Empennages on Aircraft Drag, Lift, and Efficiency

Overview

The empennage, or tail, of an aircraft plays a vital role in aircraft structure and function. Four forces act upon each part of an aircraft: lift, drag, weight, and thrust, with lift and drag determining the aerodynamic efficiency of an object. The purpose of this experiment is to examine the effect of aircraft empennages on the efficiency of an aircraft through the lift-to-drag ratio. As a hypothesis, the T-tail would have the highest lift-to-drag ratio due to the placement of the ventral fins of the plane, allowing for smoother fluid flow, decreased drag and increased lift. In order to determine each lift-to-drag ratio, four different aircraft empennages were placed in a subsonic wind tunnel: standard, V-shape, T-shape, and twin tails. Then, drag force and lift force were measured for each of the empennages at varying speeds. Then, the lift-to-drag ratio was found by dividing the lift and drag coefficients. The lift-to-drag ratio for the standard tail was 0.837, 0.452 for the V-tail, 0.4224 for the twin tail, and 0.95 for the T-tail. Therefore, the standard tail has the highest lift-to-drag ratio followed by the T-tail, V-tail, and the twin tail. The low drag of the standard tail as well as the high lift produced during takeoff would allow the standard tail to be the most efficient empennage, rejecting the initial hypothesis.

Competition history

• AJAS 2018 Category not listed

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