Preface

Summary

This book is a derivative of an earlier textbook on flight performance. This new work reflects my increased wisdom on the subject and represents an almost complete departure from closed-form solutions that are traditionally taught in under-graduate and post-graduate programs. Over the past several years, I have benefited from the experience of teaching a flight performance course to senior engineers from industry, government departments and academia. In the process, I learned a few new things that now find a place somewhere in the book.

There is an increase in numerical methods in all fields of engineering; nevertheless, flight performance has remarkably resisted change. Some closed-form solutions have been retained for those engineers who need a quick answer. The modern airplane is a complex engineering machine governed by systems, software and avionics. Primitive methods are still widely used, which are then applied to aircraft design and produce results of dubious accuracy that cannot be assessed. Worryingly, these methods are used inmost “conceptual design” and “multi-disciplinary optimisation” methods. Now assume, more realistically, that you have been hired to provide flight prediction tools to an airline operator or a manufacturer of engines or airframes, a national or international aviation authority, an air traffic control organisation. Why should they trust your performance software? What is the risk of under-predicting the mission fuel for an intercontinental flight?

As we worried about conceptual design, the world has moved on. There is increased emphasis on airplane evolution and upgrading, which is now reflected in my thinking. At the same time, the environmental performance of the aircraft has become very prominent.