Center of gravity analysis of a flying car

Abstract

One solution provided by the industry engaged in the automotive sector to overcome congestion is flying cars. One of the stages in designing a flying car is to determine the center of gravity. The center of gravity of the aircraft must be in the range of 15-25% of the mean aerodynamic wing chord so that the aircraft can fly stably. In flying vehicles, the determination of the center of gravity is done by arranging the components of the vehicle so that the center of gravity falls within that range. In this study, the compilation of components with two configurations was carried out, the fuel tank was in the middle (first configuration) and the fuel tank was in the back (second configuration). The results obtained that the center of gravity in the first configuration is located at 444.7 mm and the second configuration is located at 366.05 mm in front of the forwards center of gravity limits. The second configuration will tend to be more stable. However, both configurations will cause the aircraft to get nose heavy. This study also calculates the canard angle. When the aircraft cruising, the canard angle is at 2.4 degrees. Whereas at the moment just before stalling, CL requirement of the canard is - 1,724, but the canard airfoil is only able to give -1,5977. Thus, the canard is unable to balance the aircraft's lift force in a stall condition.