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A STUDY OF NACAA ND NASA
PUBLISHED INFORMATION OF
PERTINENCE IN THE DESIGN
OF LIGHT AIRCRAFT
Volume I - Structures
by Fredm-ck 0. Smetma
Prepared by
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Raleigh, N. C.
for Langley Research Center
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTOND , . C.
A STUDY OF NACA AND NASA PUBLISHED INFOR.MATION
OF PERTINENCE IN THE DESIGN OF LIGHT AIRCRAFT
Volume I - Structures
By Frederick 0. Smetana
Distribution of this report is provided in the interesto f
information exchange. Responsibility for thec ontents
resides in the author or organization that prepared it.
Prepared under Contract No. 1-7265 by
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERJNG
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Raleigh, N.C.
for Langley Research Center
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
For sale by the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical information
Springfield, Virginia 22151 - Price $3.00
Acknowledgements
Examination will show that the p reparat ion o f th is report involved a
g rea t many lengthye d i tor ia lt asks . Many f igures were prepared,r eports had
tob es ecured,a ccountk ept of thoser eviewed,t ypescript'p roofread, etc.
Mr. Delbert C. Summey was pr inc ipa l lyr e spons ib lef o rt hesef unc t ions . H i s
contr ibut ion is herewith g ra teful ly acknowledged.
Mr- Joseph W. S t i ck le of theL angleyR esearchC enter, who acteda s
technical monitor, madem any valuable suggestions relative to' the conduct of
t he work. His contr ibut ion is a l so acknowledged.
iii
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Table of Contents
Page
GeneraIl n troduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
GenerCa lo nclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A Study o f NACA and NASA Published Information of Per t inence
i n t h e Designa ndC onstructiono fL ightA ircraftS tructures . . . . . . 6
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
NACA Technical Notes
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
NASA Memorandum( Memo)
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
NASA Technical Notes
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
NACA Technical Reports
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
NASA Technical Reports
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
NACA Wartime Reports
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
NACA Research Memorandum
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
NACA Technical Memorandum
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
NASA Technical Translat ion
Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Not Applicable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Individuals in the Nat ional Aeronaut ics andS paceA dministrationh ave
long f e l t t h a t much of thea gency'sr .esearch,a l thougho r iginallyp erformed
i n s u p p o r t of m i l i t a r y andc ommercial t ransport p rograms, has n o t been applied
as completely as it mighth aveb een t o g e n e r a l a v i a t i o n a c t i v i t y , p a r t i c u l a r l y
as the f l i gh t s peed o f t h e se a i r c r a f t r e ached r eg ions i n which m i l i t a r y and
commercial t ransport a ircraft have operated during the past twenty-nine years.
NASA has a lso recognized that general aviat ion manufactur ing concerns are q u i t e
small compared to t he u sua l ae rospace manufac turer ; t hey do not have t he l a rge
eng inee r ing s t a f f s t o a dap t net7 technology rapidly, but operate more nea r ly
l i k e t h e m a j o r i t y ofA mericanm anufacturingc oncernsw heree volutionaryc hanges
rathert hanr evolutionaryc hanges are theo rdero ft hed ay. A s a r e s u l t ,
technical information contained in NASA f i l e s must be s pec i a l ly p rocessed t o
make i t rea l lyu s e fu lt os u chf i rms . A s o r ig ina l lyc once ived ,t hev eh ic lef o r
t h i s t r a n s f e r .c7ould be a modem,s tep-by-stepd esignm anual.
Another d i f f i c u l t y f a c e d by the g ene ra l a v i a t ion i ndus t ry i s t h e l a c k of
young engineer ing t a len t w i th an apprec ia t ion o f and i n t e r e s t i n t h e i n d u s t r y ' s
problems.T his is a r e s u l t of thea lmos te xc lus ivea t t en t iont ot hep rob lems
of supersonic and space f l ight which has been character is t ic o f American
ae ronau t i ca le duca t ionf o r t h ep a s t1 5y e a r s . Younger f a c u l t y , f o r t h e most
p a r t , are no t familiar wi th t he p roblems o f l igh t a i rc ra f t des ign and so f a i l
t o m o t i v a t e s t u d e n t s t o c o n s i d e r t h i s f i e l d .
A s a ~7ay o f a i d ing t he g ene ra l a v i a t ion i ndus t ry i n t h i s area as well as
wi th t echnica l i n format ion , NASA contracted with North Carolina State
Universi ty to have a groupo fy oungerf acultya nds tudentsc onduct a surveyo f
a l l NACA and NASA-generatedw ork s i n c e 1940 to i den t i fy t e chn ica l i n fo rma t ion
of p o t e n t i a l u s e i n a l i g h t a i r c r a f t d e s i g n manual.F ivef aculty members of
t h e Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering participated i n t h e
program.E ach vas a s s i s t ed by two AerospaceE ngineerings eniors who a l s o were
given spec ia l s ec t ions o f t he r egular s en ior work i n Aerospace Engineering of
d i r e c t p e r t i n e n c e t o l i g h t a i r c r a f t .
D r . James C. TkLliams ~7asr esponsible for reviewing the work ' in aero-
dynamicsa nd v7as a s s i s t e d by M r . Edwin S e i g l a r and Mr . Delbert Summey.
D r . John N. Perkins v7as responsible for reviewing the work i n air loads
and v7as a s s i s t e d by M r . DonaldK neppera nd M r . Wll iam Rickard.
D r . C l i f f o r d J. Moore reviewed the worko n propulsion systems analysis
and t7as as s i s t ed by M r . DonaldG raya nd M r . JohnnyL ogan.
Mr. Dennis M. Ph i l l ips r ev iewed the work i n performance-, s t a b i l i t y and
con t ro l , and f l i g h t s a f e t y and was a s s i s t e d by M r . Robert P i t t s and Mr. Paul
Ho .
D r . Frederick 0. Smetana was responsiblef o r r eviewingt he work i n
cons t ruc t ion ana lys i s , materials, andt echniquesa nd w a s a s s i s t e d by Mr. Hudson
Guthriea nd M r. FrankD avis. D r . Smetana a l soa c t ed as P r inc ipa lI nves t iga to r
on the p r o j e c t .
The majori tyo ft he workb egan 1 June 1968. The studentsd evoted
approximately 30 hours a week each f o r t h e 13 weekso f t h e summer and 8 hours
pe r week d u r i n g t h e f a l l semester t o t h e p r o j e c t . F a c u l t y commitment was
approximately1 /4 time dur ing the summer and 2/5 time d u r i n g t h e f a l l semester.
The s tudents performed the major i ty of the ac tual document rev iews a f te r
be ingi n s t ruc t ed as t ot h et y p e ofi nformationd es i red. The f a c u l t ya l s o
providedg uidance when pertinence of a p a r t i c u l a r r e p o r t was ques t ioned o r t h e
t reatment was tooa dvanced.B eginning i n late f a l l , t h e f a c u l t y members
c a r r i e d o u t an ana lys i so f t he reviews i n t h e i r areas ofc ognizancet o
(1 ) i den t i fy t hose of mos t p robab ly i n t e re s t i n t he developmento f a design
manual, (2) de f inet h e s tate oft he a r t i n each area, and (3) i den t i fyt hose
areas pa r t i c u l a r l yw e l l - t r e a t e do r r e q u i r i n ga d d i t i o n a l r e s e a r c h . The bodyo f
t h i s r e p o r t c o n t a i n s t h e r e s u l t s o f t h e a n a l y s i s r e l a t i n g t o s t r u c t u r a l d e s i g n .
The ind iv idua l reviews are reproduced i n t h e appendix. Volume I1 treats aero-
dynamicsa nda erodynamicl oadsw hile Volume I11 is concernedw i thp ropulsion
sys tems,p rope l le rs ,p e r formancec a lcu la t ion ,s t ab i l i ty and cont ro l , and
f l i g h t s a f e t y .
It w i l l be recognized that the ass ignment o f a "no t a pp l i cab le" l abe l t o
a p a r t i c u l a r r e p o r t i s a judgment dec is ion; t he s t andards fo r makings uch
assignmentsi nevitablyv ary somewhat fromd ay t o daya ndf rom i n d i v i d u a l t o
individual .T here is a lsot het endency on t h ep a r t ofa ny rev iewert o become
more c r i t i ca l o f t he v a lue o f a r e p o r t t o a p a r t i c u l a r p r o j e c t a s h i s
experiencea ndt he number ofr eportsh eh asr eviewedi ncreases .S incet he
p resent review beganw i tht he earliest documents, t h i s d i s c r i m i n a t i o n is
appl ied more not iceably in t h e later documents.A dditionally, i t seems t o b e
i n e v i t a b l e t h a t i n t h e p r o c e s s ofa ss igningr eports t o t hev a r iousg roupsa nd
i nd iv idua l s f o r review some are reviewed twice and o the r s no t a t a l l .
Although an e f for t was made to co r r ec t s uch d e f i c i enc ie s , some undoubtedly
remain.F ort hesea ndo thers,t her eader 'si ndulgence i s requested.
No attempth asb een made t o have the analyses p repared by t h e f a c u l t y
conform t o a s i n g l e s t y l e . T h i s wouldh aveb eend i ff icultb ecause a l l were
prepareds imultaneously;b ut more impor tan t ly , t he va r ious t op ics were found
t o have been given different emphasis with time and to va ry w ide ly i n dep th .
Consequently,e achf aculty member was asked t o a d o p t t h a t s t y l e whichs eemed
mos t appropr ia te t o t he material being covered.
Then umber ofd ocuments t o b e examined was on theo rdero f1 0 ,000. A
s imple ca lcu la t ion w i l l show t h a t on the average less than 30 minutesc ould
b e a l l o t t e d t o e a c h r e p o r t . Even i f oned i scountst he 30%-40%w hich were
considered not appl icable , the time a v a i l a b l e f o r review was s t i l l no t l a rge .
It is a f a c t , a l s o , t h a t t h e rate ofg enerationh asi ncreasedm arkedlyd uring
t h e last niney ea rs . However, sincea ni n-depthi ndexo f a l l cur ren t NASA-
generated documents hasb eena vailablef orc omputers earchings ince 1962a nd
2
s ince cu r r en t r epo r t s are more l i k e l y t o b e f a m i l i a r t o t h e w o r k i n g e n g i n e e r ,
majore mphasis was placed on those reports p roduced pr ior to 1962.
3
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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
F ive f acu l ty members, ass i s ted by t en undergraduate s tudents , o f t he
Departmento fM echanicala ndA erospaceE ngineering a t North Carol ina S ta te
University have reviewed the NACA/NASA-generated l i t e r a t u r e p u b l i s h e d s i n c e
1940 fo r i n fo rma t ion o f po s s ib l e p e r t i nence t o t he d e s ign o f l i gh t a i r c r a f t .
On the b a s i s o f t h e se reviews , it is concluded that:
1. There i s a weal tho fs t ruc tura ld e s igni n format iona va i lab le
which, i f i n c o r p o r a t e d i n t e l l i g e n t l y i n l i g h t a i r c r a f t c o n s t r u c t i o n ,
c o u l d r e s u l t i n improved s t r u c t u r a l e f f i c i e n c y .
2. To app lyt h i si n fo rma t ioni nt h e most effective fa sh ionp o s s ib l e ,
computerp rogramsw hichh avem odest time requirements and which specify
t h e material gauges , t he s t i f f ene r con f igu ra t ion and t he s t i f f ene r
spacing when suppl ied w i th t he body shape des i red and the loading
expected must be developed.
3 . The informat iona va i lab le on propulsions ubsystems is adequatef or
designp urposesb utr equiresc arefula ndc ompletea ssemblya ndm ustb e
accompanied by de ta i led i ns t ruc t ions fo r i t to b e u sed e f f ec t ive ly .
4 . There are adequate,a lthough,c omplex,t heoreticalm ethodsa vailable
for calculating aerodynamic wing loads.
5. More s o p h i s t i c a t e d t h e o r e t i c a l methodsm akingu seo fh igh-speed
computersn eed t o b e d eve loped f o r t he c a l cu la t ion ofa erodynamicl oads
on t a i l sur faces .
6 . There is insu f f i c i en ta c cu ra t ei n fo rma t iona va i l ab le on hinge
moments toc ons t ru . c t r e l i ab l ed e s ignc h a r t s .
7. Information on gus tl oade xper iencesa nds pec t ra ld i s t r ibu t ion i s i n
need o f upda t ing to pe rmi t s t ruc tura l des igns su i ted t o t he va r ied
u t i l i z a t i o n o f l i g h t a i r c r a f t .
8. Information on landingg earl oadsa ppearst ob ea dequate .
9. F lu t te ri n format ion ,w h i lel imi ted ,a ppearst ob es u i tab lef o r
developmento fa dequated esign criteria.
10.T here is a l ack o f d a t a on bodya erodynamicsa nd wing-body and
ta i l -bodyi n terference effects; o therwise ,t he rea ppearst ob es u f f i -
c i e n t i n f o r m a t i o n i n t h e NACA/NASA l i t e r a t u r e t o compilea ndp repare a
des ign manual su i tab le fo r u se i n the aerodynamic design of personal-
t y p e a i r c r a f t.
11. Refinedp erformancec a lculationp roceduresw hichp ermitt hea t tain-
ment of ins tan taneous ly optimum f l i g h t p a t h s andw hich are s u i t a b l e f o r
4
