335. Future Cargo Aircraft Weight and Balance Considerations

Paper

Abstract

This paper was presented at the Twenty-first Annual National Conference of the Society of Aeronautical Weight Engineers at Seattle, Washington, May 14-17, 1962. Future commercial cargo aircraft will evolve only through economic necessity. Freight moves by a means that can offer the greatest economic return to the shipper, and service by air is provided when the commercial operator believes it to be economically feasible to offer the service.
The economic evaluation of a future cargo aircraft must consider the entire system in which the aircraft is to be used. Weight penalties will only be applicable to the airborne vehicle. The revenue factors to be used in determining the value of the increased weight empty will be dependent upon several factors: airborne accessories, ground equipment, and terminal facilities. The weight estimate must be carefully made and lightweight design maintained to obtain optimum economic return.
Decreasing gate time is paramount to a successful system and as aircraft grow in size and cost this factor rapidly increase in importance. Even though minimum weight is essential to a well designed aircraft, the alternative, adding weight for increased economic return must always be considered.
Utilization of payload potential must be considered at all times. To attain a high degree of utilization, ability to readily change from one type of payload to another is necessary. Differences in payload must be anticipated from relatively long term changes, such as increased densities due to reduced rates, as well as short term seasonal and diurnal variations, and variations between different segments of the route structure.
Weight engineers must be aware of the important role they have in an economic analysis of air cargo transportation, and they must ensure that the weight estimates used are of the degree of accuracy necessary for such critical considerations.