A multi-disciplinary analysis and optimisation methodology has been developed and applied in a study to compare the fuel burn of a box-wing configuration compared to a conventional aircraft configuration for a given mission. The methodology and toolchain combines Vortex Lattice Method (VLM) with a newly developed structural analysis tool WingMASS, allowing the design space to be explored from an aerodynamics and structures perspective. Three geometric paramters were varied: horizontal and vertical wing separation and aspect ratio. The results show a clear trade-off in aerodynamic efficiency and wing structural weight. A comparison between the box-wing configuration and its conventional counterpart shows that the box-wing configuration has a potential fuel burn reduction of about 5%. Changing the horizontal wing separation due to weight and balance and stability and control requirements, still leads to a 3% reduction in fuel burn.
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