Vertical tail sizing of propeller-driven aircraft considering the asymmetric blade effect

Abstract

An engineering approach is presented to analyse the asymmetric blade thrust effect with the help of analytical and semi-empirical methods. It is shown that the contribution of the asymmetric blade thrust effect in the lateral-directional stability of multi-engine propeller-driven aircraft is significant particularly in critical flight conditions with one engine out of service. Also, in some cases where the engines are rotating in one direction, the asymmetric blade effect has substantial effects on the handling qualities of the aircraft even in normal flight conditions. Overall, due to the significant contribution of this phenomenon in the lateral-directional stability of propeller-driven airplanes, it is important to consider it in the design of the vertical stabilizer and rudder. The resulting analytical method has been used to determine the vertical tail incident angle and desired rudder deflection in accordance with the most critical flight condition for two different cases and validated to ensure the accuracy of the result. In this work, the aerodynamic coefficients as well as the stability and control derivatives have been predicted using analytical and semi-empirical methods validated for light aircraft.