474. On the Accuracy of the Weight Empty Estimate

Paper

Abstract

Several methods were used to estimate the weight empty ofa sample of eight aircraft. The sample included four transports and four bombers. These aircraft were fairly well distributed over a wide range of gross weights, and consisted mostly of jet aircraft of both early and late vintage. The methods used were statistical in nature, and were chosen so as to show the influence of the number of parameters used on the accuracy of the estimated weight, and a demonstration of the accuracies of different methods. It is concluded that an adjustment, which is at least equal to the inaccuracy of the methods used, must be added to the estimated weight empty.