Natwerk Designs

Best Overall Plane design?

I have a science fair project due this thursday. I want to prove that there is one type of plane design that is the best. Iike Canards, wings, deltas, origanal vert. and hor. stab and fuse plane....etc. I need to know why. Is it better because its structurally stronger, lighter, has more wing area, great lift, or good control authority. Which one has all? My opinion is the delta, but i want to make sure. stability and broad speed range

Public Comments

1. Best for what? Aircraft designs are optimized. Some for stability, some for range and load capacity, some for maneuverability, some for speed. Going for any one or two of these costs performance in the others. (The Delta is one of the worst all around configurations.)
2. The delta wing requires a much larger angle of attack to generate the same amount of lift as compared to a tappered wing or an elliptical wing at low airspeeds. This curtails its maneuverability. Delta wings are optimised for supersonic flight. The sweep on the delta wing reduces wave drag. The best i would think of for stability and broad speed range would be a variable swept wing. This however will make the plane heavier and more expensive to build. "Typically, a swept wing is more suitable for high speeds, while an unswept wing is suitable for lower speeds (such as when taking off and landing). A swing-wing allows a pilot to select the correct wing configuration for the plane's intended speed. The swing-wing is most useful for those aircraft that are expected to function at both low and high speed, and for this reason it has been used primarily in military aircraft." Canards creates a plane with better controls as it has clean air over it as compared to vertical stabalizers. This however compromises the lift from the main wings at the rear due to the following reasons: "The wing root operates in the downwash from the canard surface, which reduces its efficiency, although the effect of the downwash does not cause as large of a problem as the tailplane would experience in a conventional set-up. Because the canard must be designed to stall before the main wing, the main wing never stalls and so never achieves its maximum lift coefficient. This may require a larger wing to provide extra wing area in order for the airplane to achieve the desired takeoff and landing distance performance" The formula for creating lift would be lift=0.5*density*velocity^2*Coefficient of lift* planform area Stability is pretty much determined by the center of gravity and the aerodynamic center. As long as you balance the plane, with payload/weights it should not be a problem. however a more stable aircraft would be less maneuverable, which is why modern fighters are designed 'unstable'. Ultimately as mentioned, its all about what you want out of the plane. You can't really prove that one type of plane design is the best as new technology/research might change it, like stronger materials, or better control systems.