Short haul transport systems and aircraft technology

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Abstract

Short-haul air transport systems and advanced aircraft are discussed for two categories of traffic: low/medium density and high density. In both cases, the interaction with long-haul transport is significant, and the interconnection of short-haul and long-haul traffic at hub airports is vital. Expected traffic growth, combined with environmental concerns, means that capacities of existing airports must be expanded with all the approaches available, including ultimately short-haul aircraft with reduced field length requirements. Summaries are presented of studies of low wing loading aircraft with active controls suitable for the low/medium density routes with short stage lengths and of propulsive-lift aircraft suitable for higher density routes. In the first case, the optimum characteristics of aircraft sized for 20-70 passengers include active controls for ride quality and gust alleviation; turboprop propulsion offers significant cost and fuel saving with no appreciable block time penalty for short typical stage lengths (on the order of 150 miles). In the high-density arena, high bypass-ratio fan-powered aircraft with design cruise speed of 0.7-0.75 M and range capability of 1500 miles, are considered to be optimum. In both short-haul categories, the prop fan (or multi-bladed unshrouded fan) is a very interesting possible alternate, because the optimum speeds for short-haul stage lengths are lower than for long-haul aircraft. It is recommended that the following technologies be continued in development to the point they can be incorporated in project design of transport aircraft with acceptable low economic risk: propulsive lift, active controls for ride quality and load alleviation, composite structure and advanced propulsion. © 1977.

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APA

Sweet, H. S. (1977). Short haul transport systems and aircraft technology. Acta Astronautica, 4(1–2), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-5765(77)90032-7

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