D esign of an Aircraft

The first estimate of Weight

Introduction
There are several ways to segment the weight
components of an aircraft. Here is one method.
Aircraft Weight
Crew Weight Wc
Payload Weight Wpl
Fuel Weight Wf
Empty Weight We

W eight Estim ation

Estim ation of W e/W

If we look at historical statistical data we can get a good

approximation of what the ratio of empty weigh to
overall weight is.
For this reason the following spread sheet was created.

W e/W

of Piston Aircraft

Aircraft Type

Empty Mass
(kg)

Piper Cub
345
Vans RV-12
340
Diamond DA20-C1 529
Cessna 152
490
Robin R3000
600
Socata Rallye
570
Socata TB10
670
Cessna 182
894
Beech Bonanza
1142
Piper 34 Seneca 1457
Cessna 340
1780
Cessna 208
2073

MTOM (kg)

We/Wo

Category

550
600
750
757
1050
1050
1150
1406
1656
2155
2719
3969

0.62727273 Piston
0.56666667 Piston
0.70533333 Piston
0.64729194 Piston
0.57142857 Piston
0.54285714 Piston
0.5826087 Piston
0.63584637 Piston
0.68961353 Piston
0.67610209 Piston
0.65465245 Piston
0.52229781 Piston

W e/W o of Turbofan Aircraft

Empty Mass
(kg)

MTOM (kg)

We/Wo

Category

Learjet 45

5826

9163

0.63581796

Turbofan

Citation X

9798

16374

0.59838769

Turbofan

Falcon 900

10255

20640

0.49685078

Turbofan

G IV-SP

16100

33800

0.47633136

Turbofan

A320-200

42600

78000

0.54615385

Turbofan

737-800

41413

79010

0.52414884

Turbofan

A321-200

48500

93500

0.51871658

Turbofan

A330-200

119600

242000

0.49421488

Turbofan

777-200

134800

247200

0.54530744

Turbofan

A340-200

129000

275000

0.46909091

Turbofan

777-300

160500

299370

0.53612586

Turbofan

A340-600

177800

368000

0.48315217

Turbofan

747-400

178800

396890

0.45050266

A380-800

276800

575000

0.4813913

Aircraft Type

Turbofan
Turbofan

W e/W o of Turbofan Aircraft

Socata TBM 850
PC-12

Empty Mass
(kg)
2081
2761

King Air 200

3520

5670

0.62081129

Turboprop

CASA CN235

9800

15100

0.64900662

Turboprop

Bombardier Q-Series 200

10483

16470

0.63649059

Turboprop

ATR42-300

10500

16900

0.62130178

Turboprop

ATR42-600

11250

18600

0.60483871

Turboprop

Bombardier Q-Series 300

11791

19500

0.60466667

Turboprop

Bombardier Q-Series 400

17185

29260

0.58732057

Turboprop

Aircraft Type

MTOM (kg)

We/Wo

Category

3353
4740

0.62063823
0.58248945

Turboprop
Turboprop

Average W e/W o
Aircraft Category

Piston
Turboprop
Turbofan
Less than 10,000kg
Greater than
10,000kg

Average We /Wo

0.62
0.61
0.52
0.62
0.54

StatisticalW e/W o Inform ation

We/Wo
300000

f(x) = 0.48x + 1474.06

R = 1

250000

200000

Empty Weight

150000

100000

50000

100000

200000

300000
MTOW

400000

500000

600000

700000

Estim ation of W f/W

Fuel

The Breguet Range

For a propeller aircraft
For a Turbine Aircraft

For a battery aircraft

Voltage . Ampere Hours

The amount of fuel

depends upon:
Efficiency of the propulsion
device.
The specific fuel
consumption
The aerodynamic efficiency

W f/W

M ission Profi
le Propeller

Breguet
Range

C lim

e
s
i
u
r
C

3
De
sc

en
t

Allowing for a
fuel reserve of
6%

Landing

Takeof
0

W f/W

For take of the ratio of

W1/W0 is small. Lets
assume its 0.97.

For descent, W4/W3well

assume that the throttles
are back and the engine
is consuming very little
fuel. Once again lets
assume 0.99.

For climb, the ratio of

W2/W1 is also small in
the order of 0.985.

For landing W5/W4 the

fuel is small again. Lets
assume 0.995.

W f/W

For cruise, (W4/W3) well

use the Breguet Range
equation.

We can assume the prop

has an efficiency of 85%
We can assume a L/D of
14.
We can take the specific
fuel consumption from
the engine data.

Exam ple Q uestion

You are doing the initial
weight estimation for a
piston engine aircraft
that is required to carry 1
Crew and 1 Pax with a
range of 740km.
Assume
c=8.15 x 10-7 N/w s
L/D = 14
Prop= 85%

Ratio

Value

Descripti
on

w1/w0

0.97

Taxi

w2/w1

0.985

Climb

w3/w2

??

Cruise

w4/w3

0.995

Descent

w5/w4

0.995

Landing

Solution

740

Ratio

Value

Descripti
on

w1/w0

0.97

Taxi

w2/w1

0.985

Climb

w3/w2

.95

Cruise

w4/w3

0.995

Descent

w5/w4

0.995

Landing

Solution

Ratio

Value

Descripti
on

w1/w0

0.97

Taxi

w2/w1

0.985

Climb

w3/w2

.95

Cruise

w4/w3

0.995

Descent

w5/w4

0.995

Landing

w5/w0

.899

Solution
WC = 85kg
WPL=200kg
The aircraft is under
10,000kg due to pax and
range requirements.
Therefore:
We/Wo=0.6

Com m ents on the solution

This

is the specification
for a C152. The actual
MTOW is 757.5kg.
The mass of the fuel from
the question is
Using a specific gravity of .
78 gives a volume of 101
litres or 26.6 gallons (US)
The actual capacity for a
C152 is 26 gallons (US)

Exercise
According to their website, the
RV has range of 990km, can
carry two people and has a
fuel capacity of 20 US Gallons
and a MTOM of 600kg.
How would our first
approximation of the weight
estimate compare if we make
the following assumptions:
L/D =14
c=8.15 x 10-7 N/w s
Prop Efficiecny 85%

Ratio

Value

Descripti
on

w1/w0

0.97

Taxi

w2/w1

0.985

Climb

w3/w2

??

Cruise

w4/w3

0.995

Descent

w5/w4

0.995

Landing