Designing Aircraft: Ensuring Propulsion System Performance - Essay Sample

Introduction

The design process of an aircraft is an important activity that should be taken seriously to prevent the possibilities of errors arousing when the plane begins to operate. The extent of propulsion is amongst the many operations that are usually involved during this process. The propulsion system can be defined as the mechanism that enables the airplane to move forward or the force of driving a particular object towards a forwards direction. For this to be effectively achieved, absolute power must be employed. Distinct types of forces are customarily required with different types of planes depending on factors such as the capacity of the target airplane, the location of the aircraft, the size of the plane, among other aspects. The primary aim of this discussion is to coherently describe one of the situations when the propulsion process was not effectively incorporated in the design stage and the mistakes, challenges, or problems that were faced in regards to that fault (Adamson et al., 2019). Corrective measures and strategies that can be used to counteract the effects to see that the entire process works well have also been discussed in the latter part of this study.

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In of the incidences that occurred at one of the new aircraft in the United States of America, it was noted that after the building and construction of the plane, most of the aircraft did not move at the expected speeds. After a long-term intervention by the engineers, they discovered that the propulsion system materials (engine and fuel tanks) had been made poorly, and thus, the forward movement of the plane proved to be so hard. One of the most considerable risks of such a challenge is that accidents can occur very quickly, especially if the plane malfunctions while moving, as it will destabilize very soon as compared to one with a stable and a well-fixed propulsion system. As noted previously, NASA defines propulsion as the system or a given machine that makes an object move forward after it has produced a specific force called thrust. The system consists typically of an engine and propeller, which can be replaced by a nozzle at times, working primarily in the conversion of motion (that of a driver), which then generates thrust enabling the plane to propel forward.

Unfortunately, the process can only be achieved under specific conditions, failure of which the stated errors can arise. One of these principles is that the thrust which is generated by an acceleration of one of the materials (engine) using a specific fluid or gas (another element), it must be above the drag balance, without which the plane cannot move towards the forward direction or accelerate. Secondly, the second principle stipulates that when the aircraft is cruising then, the thrust force should be at a linear level with the drag balance to keep the plane is a fixed position and line or path. Basically, from the two working principles of the propulsion system that have been stated, it is then worth to note that, when the difference between the thrust and drag is significant, the faster the plane moves and the reverse is equally true (Adamson et al., 2019).

Concerning the problem with the planes, sources articulate that some of the standard parameters such as fuel consumption and engine geometry were wrongly designed. Bigger airplanes that needed to cover somewhat longer distances required higher speeds, and this meant they should be assigned large fuel tanks because the engine is as well bigger and consumes a lot. So the mistake was typical as a result of inserting a wrong driver; thus, the drag exceeded the thrust on most occasions once the plane began to move, and the propellers or nozzles begin to accelerate because less thrust was being produced (Jenkins et al., 2015).

To correct this, the team of engineers should revisit the design process, and ensure that a correct engine is assigned to a plane. Those who are meant to travel for shorter distances within the states must be assigned relatively smaller engines because the thrust might be rise so high that now the speeds exceed the limit causing accidents like loss of planes in the radar, which have been experienced before also in the same aircraft (Oates, 2019). Additionally, planes that are meant to travel for longer distances or those which carry a comparatively large number of people should be assigned big engines, and ample storage tanks for fuel, so that the drug and thrust balances during the cruising process and that thrust exceeds the drag balance during acceleration.

Perhaps, there is a need to correct the materials used, specifically the engine and fuel tanks. As describes, it is not necessarily critical to alter the types of documents. Still, instead, the correct sizes should be installed in each plane so that all the elements in the propulsion system work efficiently and effectively without any faults in speed while moving. Meanwhile, to conclude, it is also a core requirement that the correct types of gas or liquids be used as fuels, because some have high affinity to cause more significant acceleration faster than expected, causing imbalances in the speed.

References

Adamson, A. P., Butler, L., & Wall, R. A. (2019). U.S. Patent No. 5,010,729. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US5010729A/en

Jenkins, J. L., Wood, T. L., & Brand, A. G. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 5,435,489. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US5435489A/en

Oates, G. C. (Ed.). (2019). Aircraft propulsion systems technology and design. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Retrieved from https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/4.861499