AE3211­I  Systems Engineering and 

Aerospace Design
• Overview & recap 
• Aircraft balance

Dr. Fabrizio Oliviero (FPP)

Delft
University of
Technology

Challenge the future

Contents
• Introduction and overall overview of the Aircraft Design
part

• Weight&balance
• Definition
• Estimation of the OEW CG
• Definition of the loading diagram
• Sensitivity to the Wing shift

• Landing gear location

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 2

Motivation

Motivation for the overall AE3211-I

course:
• Complete what you need to design spacecraft and
aircraft systems!
• Understand how the elements from previous courses
fit into a coherent framework of how to engineer a
complex aerospace product!
• Get prepared for the Design Synthesis Exercise!
• Appreciate the use of Systems Engineering (not only
for aerospace products!)

See lecture 1 by Prof. Gil

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 3

Motivation

Motivation for this specific a/c design

oriented module:
• Complete what you need to design spacecraft and
aircraft systems!
• Understand how the elements from previous courses
fit into a coherent framework of how to engineer a
complex aerospace product! to perform conceptual
design of aircraft
• Get prepared for the Design Synthesis Exercise!
• Appreciate the use of Systems Engineering through
aircraft application examples of:
• Requirements and Functional analysis
• Management of iterations in the design
process
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 4
 Study material
• Lecture presentations
• Additional presentations will be available on BS
• Books on Aircraft Design previously cited in AE1222 and AE2111

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 5

A note on the notes*…

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 6

 The Aircraft Systems View
A ir c r a ft s y s te m
Subsystems

A ir c r a ft T r a in in g S u p p o rt F a c ilitie s P e rs o n n e l
Segments

E n v ir o n m e n ta l A v io n ic s E le c tr ic a l I n te r io r s M e c h a n ic a l P ro p u ls io n A u x ilia ry A ir fr a m e
segm ent segm ent segm ent segm ent segm ent segm ent segm ent segm ent
C re w A u x ilia ry
A ir E le c tr ic a l F lig h t
A u to flig h t accom oda- Fuel pow er F u s e la g e
c o n d itio n in g pow er c o n tr o l s
tio n s s y s te m
C a b in C o m m u n ic a ti S h ip s id e Passenger H y d ra u lic
P y lo n Em pennage
p re s s u re ons lig h tin g accom oda- power
tio n s
Ic e a n d r a in In d ic a tin g a n d L a n d in g Pow er
W in g
p r o te c tio n re c o rd in g g e a rs p la n t
W a te r , w a s te ,
la vs , g a lle y s
O xyg e n N a v ig a tio n & p lu m b in g Pow er
c o n tr o l
P n e u m a tic E m e rg e n c y
p ro v is io n s

S ig n s a n d AE1201+AE2111 This course

lig h ts

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 7

 During this A/C module (3 lectures)

• (Weight &) Balance

• Mass estimation

• Determination of the CG locationS

• Stability
• Main landing gear positioning

• Tail Sizing

• Control
(maneuverability)

All these aspect will be mainly faced for the longitudinal plane. The same
analysis must be applied also to the lateral-directional characteristics.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 8

Relevance of weight&balance in a/c design

Complex or complicated? (see lecture 1)

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 9
 Relevance of stability and control in a/c 
design
The functions allotted to the fixed and movable tail surfaces are as
follows:
• To ensure equilibrium of moments for each operating flight
condition

• To ensure that the equilibrium is stable (for both steady and

dynamic perturbations)

• To generate forces to maneuver the aircraft

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 11

Previously…

During AE2111-II you learnt to predict the EOW through class II

estimation methods.
A typical class II method combines relevant geometry and load
parameters (Nz) and corrective coefficient to calculate weight of
components
An iterative process is needed to
guarantee the convergence of the
EOW w.r.t. the value calculated
during the conceptual stage
(Ae1222-II).

Q: why plural and not only

a method?

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 12

 Applying Class II methods
a t io n r e p resents
im
Weight est t f o r the
g p o i n
Class I the startin
h t &b nce. II results
alaClass
applicatio w eig
n Class II application

%MTOW

OEW1
What if OEW1 ≠ OEW2 ?
• Iterate until perc. diff < 1%
• Be aware of the OEW2
Mission + OEW/MTOW consequences!!!

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 13

The balance of the aircraft
• Assessment of the c.g. position of the empty 
aircraft
• Assessment of the c.g. range during operations 
 

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 14

 The balance of the aircraft
After the determination of all the component weights
(and OEW), the determination of the overall aircraft
center of gravity (c.g.) is necessary.
While the c.g. of the empty aircraft is more or less fixed,
variation in fuel and payload can generate large
variations of the c.g. position*.

However, airplane must be designed to guarantee

safety and full functionality…
• …for the whole range of c.g. positions,
• …both in flight…
• …and on the ground.

Balancing the aircraft is about managing and/or

dealing with* the position of the c.g. in order to
guarantee safety and full functionality during all
the operations.
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 15
 The balance of the aircraft

During design, the balance of the aircraft is generally

achievable by one or all of the following:

• longitudinal position of the wing with respect to

the fuselage*
• Size and position of the horizontal tail
• Distribution and location of systems and payload on the
fuselage
• Location of landing gears
• Implementation of a control system for the fuel flow
• Prescription of limits on the loading procedure

…and during operation? How can the aircraft be balanced?

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 16

 The aircraft balance process
A typical design approach to balance the aircraft consists of the
following steps:
1. Determine the center of gravity position of the aircraft at operative
empty weight*, for the assumed tail size and longitudinal wing
position
2. Add the c.g. variations caused by non fixed items, such as payload
(pax and freight) and fuel*.  Loading diagrams.
3. Check the maximum c.g. range against the allowable most aft and
most forward c.g. position**.  X-plot
4. If necessary, adjust the tail size*** and longitudinal wing
position, and iterate from point 1

loading X-plot
diagram
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 17
The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position
To compute the c.g. position of the operative empty aircraft, it is
necessary to know the location of all the weight components with
respect to the aircraft reference system.

Example of component c.g. location information (source

Roskam)
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 19
 Example of component c.g. location information

 x W CGi i
xCGOEW  i

W i
i

Fuselage CG: only structure +systems (the engine is always excluded)*

Tail**:

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 20

Example of component c.g. location information

Wing (including movables and Nacelle:

systems, no fuel):

Engine:
Data provided directly by the
manufactures

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 21

The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position
To control the c.g. of the empty aircraft moving the wing position
with respect to the fuselage, it is convenient to arrange the various
weight components into a fuselage group and a wing group

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 22

The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position

What’s in the FUSELAGE GROUP?

All parts that are somehow fixed to the fuselage or
generally related to it, that is:

• Furnished fuselage with systems

• Fuselage mounted engines
• Tail
• Nose wheel

NO main landing gear, which is typically positioned with

respect to the wing MAC*

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 23

The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position

What’s in the WING GROUP?

• wing structure with movables and systems
• wing mounted engines* with fuel systems
• The main landing gear - even when physically attached
to the fuselage!

Why?
The position of the landing gear, as the position of the wing,
affects not only the CG position but also the CG limits due to
clearance and stability requirements during ground operations.
The main landing gear is positioned relatively to the wing (i.e. to the
wing a.c.) , typically at 45-50% MAC, to guarantee ease of rotation at
take off.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 24

The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position

To obtain small tail loads, the center of gravity is always located

close to the wing aerodynamic center (a.c.):
Lw

xLEMAC

MAC
o o
ac c.g.

Mac

Therefore, it is convenient to express the c.g. location (Xcg) in

%MAC*.
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 25
The aircraft balance process. The OEW c.g. position
Select an initial longitudinal wing-fuselage setting to
determine the c.g. position of the aircraft at OEW

A “first attempt” wing position (XLEMAC) can be estimated

based on known OEW c.g. positions (XOE) from reference
aircraft, as follow*: W WG
X LEMAC  X FG  X OE  ( X WG  X OE )
WFG

c.g.@ OEW (%MAC): 20-25% 35-40% 25-30%

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 26

Generation of the aircraft 
loading diagrams

Estimation of the aircraft c.g. travel 
during operation
 

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 27

 The loading diagram
Once the position of the aircraft c.g. @ OEW is known, cargo,
passengers and fuel are loaded until MTOW has been
reached.
During loading, the c.g. of the aircraft will vary as shown in
this graph, called the loading diagram (or potato
MTOW
diagram).

MZFW

Goal of the diagram

is to assess the
maximum c.g.
range* of the aircraft

OEW

Calculated
AE3211-I Systems Engineering with class
and Aerospace II
Design methods 28
 The passenger loading
Usually we rely on a statistical prediction
of the passenger distribution normally
managed by the different airliners.
The “window seating rule” can be
adopted.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 29

The cargo loading diagram
This graph is relative to a passengers aircraft with 2 cargo holds (front
and rear).

In this case the cargo has been represented as two concentrated

masses.
However, when the cargo is
arranged in many unit loading
devices, it is better to consider
the effect of each unit load device
separately.

In case of freighter, there are

hundreds of loading possibilities
so that the design problem is
faced in the inverse way:
Given the final fore-and-aft
position of the cg, what are all
the possible location of the cargo
cg for different amount of
payload.
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 30
 The fuel loading diagram
For simplicity we can assume that the fuel c.g. is located in
correspondence of the tank c.g.

However different and separated

fuel tanks can be installed in a wing
and a fuel flow control system can
be used to manage the tanks
emptying sequence.

Keeping fuel at the tip of the wing

increases the bending relief action.
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 32
The loading diagram
This is the loading diagram of a passengers aircraft.

The 3 “potatoes” show

the effect of passengers
occupying first the
windows seats, then the
aisle seats and finally
the center seats
Use a 2% margins to
account for the c.g.
variations caused by
passengers and attendants
moving, landing gear
retracting, food and drinks
served, etc.
Q1: Why the top
potato is smaller?
Q2: Why is there no
symmetry?
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 33
The loading diagram

Centered. The most convenient, because

of the small c.g. range

Tilted forward. The OEW c.g. is quite close

to the tail, due to the aft fuselage mounted
engines. Passengers and fuel shift the c.g.
strongly forward. More difficult to balance

Tilted backward. The OEW c.g. is slightly

close to the nose, due to the forward wing
mounted engines. Passengers shift c.g.
backward. Less difficult to balance due to
the longer tail arm

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 34

The loading diagram
The extreme front and aft c.g. position must be compatible
with the limits dictated by aircraft controllability and stability,
both in flight* and on the ground
The ground controllability
and stability limits
depends on the landing
gear positioning:

• The main gear must

always sit behind the
max aft c.g. position
(with some margin to
avoid tip over)

• The nose gear should

not be overloaded**
(<15%MTOW) to not
spoil braking efficiency
and allow steering
AE3211-I during
Systems Engineering and Aerospace braking
Design 35
Effect of longitudinal wing shift on c.g. travel

In order to affect the c.g. range (i.e., the position of the

most fore and aft c.g), the designer has the opportunity to
modify the longitudinal position of the wing (group)
with respect to the fuselage.

To study how the c.g. ranges changes with the longitudinal

wing position, we can generate 3 loading diagrams for 3
different wing positions (expressed in terms of XLEMAC/lfuselage
ratios):
• Position 1. (the one used for the initial tail sizing)
• Slightly forward wing positioning (e.g. position 1 -10%)
• Slightly backward wing positioning (e.g. position 1
+10%)
Finally, a plot can be generated that describes the c.g.
range variations for different longitudinal position of the
wing w.r.t. the fuselage (XLEMAC/lfuselage vs. Xcg/MAC)

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 37

Effect of longitudinal wing shift on c.g. travel

Initial wing positioning

c.g. max range at wing position 1

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 38

Effect of longitudinal wing shift on c.g. travel

Wing shifted forward

(OEW c.g. moves back on MAC)

c.g. max range at wing position 2

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 39

Effect of longitudinal wing shift on c.g. travel

Wing shifted back

(OEW c.g. moves forward on MAC)

c.g. max range at wing position 3

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 40

Effect of longitudinal wing shift on c.g. travel

c.g. max range at wing position 3 (backward)

c.g. max range at wing position 1

Most forward
Most aft

c.g. max range at wing position 2 (forward)

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 41

CG limits for ground operations 
and landing gear location

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 42

 Angles of pitch and roll: limits
Clearance criterion:
The location and size of the landing gear must allow any
combination of pitch angle and roll angle that might occur
during normal operations.
The  envelope can be
reported in the graph where
limits come from interaction
of part with the ground for
any combination of those
angles.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 43

 Pitch angle limit
The angle between the vertical line and the line through the main
gear and the cg, should anyhow be larger than the tip-back angle
which is the maximum aircraft nose-up attitude with the tail touching
down and the gear strut fully extended.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 44

 Pitch angle limit
Otherwise…

Note: larger the angle, greater

must be the downforce produced by
the tail to guaranee the rotation at
the take-off

Q: which position of the CG

should be considered?
Most aft CG positon!

A typical location of 10-15% MAC behind the most aft c.g. limit, which also
prevents the aircraft from tip-over

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 45

 Equilibrium on ground

Check with both the

aft and fwd
positions!
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 47
 Turnover angle
Stability criterion:
The landing gear arrangement should guarantee that the CG is
located inside the gears triangle and also stability during sharp turns.

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 48

Turnover angle

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 49

LG location: limits due to wing 
structure

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 51

 Design process for LG location & 
size
1. Assume an initial landing gear position wrt the wing LEXMAC
2. Compute the CG position limits due to loading
3. Evaluate the height of the landing gear in order to meet the
requirements on the pitch angle limit
4. Calculate the position of the nose wheel according to steering
loads
5. Evaluate also the width of the landing gear carriage du to stability
and lateral clearance criterion
6. Check if the attachments point, retraction system is not
interfering with other systems
7. If 6 is not satisfied, move the landing gear backwards and start
again from 1 or, if needed, move the entire wing group backwards
and repeat from point 1.
8. Check that the size of the landing gear is consistent with the
weight calculated previously otherwise…Iterate again!
AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 52
 During this lecture…

You have learnt:

1. the concept of aircraft balance and methods to control it
2. to compute the OEW CG of the aircraft and the effects of shifting
the wing groups on CG location
3. to compute the operational c.g. range of an aircraft (i.e.
generation of loading diagrams) and its dependency on the
overall vehicle architecture
4. To evaluate effects of landing gear location and dimension on the
ground clearance and
5. How to deal with the CG limits due to ground operations

AE3211-I Systems Engineering and Aerospace Design 53