Sizing Study for Assessing First-Order Feasibility of the Bell X-1A Supersonic Rocket-Powered Aircraft

摘要

Aircraft design is a multi-disciplinary task that requires the selection of a golden compromise among the constituent components for the final product. At the conceptual design phase, which is the earliest phase in the design life cycle, first-order tools are used to form an understanding of the design requirements, available capabilities, and potential improvements to current industrial standings. First-order tools include fundamental physical equations either solved 'by hand' or via low-fidelity computational codes. These fundamental calculations are utilized as they form a correct thus clear basic understanding of the design space available rather than a deep, detailed one. Such a clear understanding allows the identification of the feasible solution space, where the potential advanced design can fall, as well as the limit lines that define its operational boundaries and constraints. This first-order approach allows the conceptual design phase to become a low-cost, low-risk, high-knowledge phase. This rapid conceptual design assessment method is formulated into an aircraft sizing study. A comprehensive sizing study of a supersonic rocket-powered aircraft is discussed in this paper along with an application to the Bell X-1A, for lack of such a design guideline in the surveyed aircraft design literature.